Dust In The Wind
by Be Boring
Summary: COMPLETED! ML, post-FN. With Max in White's clutches and a strange woman in Terminal City, Max is forced to extremes that she never wanted to take. In the end, she must turn to her enemies to be with Logan.
1. It's News To Me

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for any original characters that happen to pop up.

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 1: It's News To Me

"Break it up! Break it up!" came frantic shouts from all around the Black Night, an old, rundown bar in Terminal City. Passersby only scurried past the old, dilapidated building that much faster, hoping not to get involved in whatever was going on. The Black Night wasn't the best place to be, particularly on Saturday night when the more rowdy perimeter guards were off duty. Namely, Mole.

It usually started out with something small and escalated from there, but it always ended the same; someone would come out with at least five broken bones. Now for a transgenic, that could be dealt with easily, but not all of the current occupants of Terminal City were transgenic. That was when things went horribly wrong.

"How many times do I have to tell you? There's no cameras allowed in this city!" were the shouts that came from the middle of the mass of strange-looking humanoid creatures. The gruffness of the voice gave away its owner in a heartbeat, which was what drew Max to the area.

"What's going on here?" she groaned when she walked through the door, only to find herself gazing at a scene of total chaos.

It was a male X5 nearby that answered her, sidestepping as two figures came rolling past him with fists flying. "Some ordinary brought a camera in here and started trying to take pictures, and we all know what Mole thinks about that kind of stuff."

Unfortunately, Max _did _know. Mole had started several fights in the past few weeks over some of the most innocent misunderstandings that involved cameras. A lot of the time it was something ridiculous, like a couple of youngsters that had gotten their hands on a disposable camera and were snapping pictures of each other, but there had also been some pranks that involved practical jokers trying to get a picture of Mole. Those were the ones that Max simply let Mole deal with, even though she personally wished that someone would manage to get the job done. It would be nice to see someone take Mole down a notch, and the easiest way to do that would be to show him that he wasn't omniscient like he seemed to think he was. 

Before things could get too out of hand, Max pushed her way to the center of the room and pulled up a familiar long-haired head from the mass. "Sketchy?" She rolled her eyes in disgust and pulled him out of Mole's grasp, then stepped between the two. "Ok, just what the hell were you thinking? We have enough problems fighting our enemies outside of that fence, why bring the fight inside of it?"

Mole made a show of slowly getting to his feet, cracking his knuckles menacingly as he did so. If he thought he was going to intimidate her, he couldn't have been more wrong. "This idiot here started taking little personal snapshots of everyone in this bar. I don't even know where he got the damn camera, but I know where I want to put it." What was almost a growl escaped the back of his throat as his eyes tore into Sketchy, who let out an audible gulp.

"As long as those pictures don't get into the wrong hands, which they won't because of the fact that there's no way he could get out of here, then I don't want you flying off the handle every time you hear a click or see a flash."

A hideous sneer crossed his already ugly face. "We're _transgenic_, not photogenic."

"Speak for yourself," came a rather cheerful voice from behind the bar. Little to Max's surprise, there was Alec, downing a can of beer while watching the festivities. He smirked when he saw the anger in her eyes. "Hey, it's not my fault that I'm not as ugly as _that_," he said, tipping his head in Mole's direction. Mole simply snorted, he was used to Alec making cracks about his looks, or lack thereof.

"Maybe not," Max snapped. "But you could learn about a little thing called tact." Then, pushing Sketchy ahead of her, she made her way out to the street, slamming the door on the curious eyes that tried to follow her progress away from them. As soon as they were on a different street, she removed her hand from Sketchy's jacket and seated herself on an old overturned bucket. "Now why don't you tell me just what you were thinking? I think Mole's made it perfectly clear how he feels about having his close-up."

Sketchy's eyes widened innocently, but it was something that Max knew better than to fall for. "Max, I swear he just misunderstood. I found an old camera in the back room of that bar, and I was seeing if it worked. Most of the pictures are just of that room, but a couple guys found me and started acting silly, having me take shots of them and all that. That just happened to be when Mole came in."

Max studied his face carefully, there was a note of truth in what he was saying. "Ok, so maybe it all started out as fun and games, but you _were_ planning on eventually using those pictures, weren't you?"

He shuffled his feet uncomfortably and refused to meet her eyes. "Maybe sometime in the future, but hopefully when things aren't as tense as they are now."

"If that's your plan, then you'll be an old man before you get to use those pictures. From the news I've seen on TV lately, I don't think things are ever going to calm down. They'll kill us first."

The tone of her voice definitely sent the message to Sketchy that she wanted to be alone, and he didn't feel like upsetting someone who could have punched him into next week. He was gone before Max raised her head again. Still, she wasn't alone.

"Are you alright? You look exhausted," came Logan's affectionate voice. His eyes ran the length of her body, taking in the hunched shoulders and the dark circles under her eyes. He knew that she didn't need sleep the way he did, but she needed at least some. She would run herself ragged if she kept going like this. 

"Define 'alright'," she muttered wearily. Why did it feel every day like someone had dropped a bulldozer onto her shoulders? As strange as it was, she wanted to go back to before the public knew about everything and it was just Ames White or Lydecker that she was running from. Things were just so much simpler when there was only one enemy to focus on, rather than thousands. At least then she knew who to fight.

Logan glanced around and lowered himself onto a crate. His legs trembled a little as they were finally relieved of their burden, but he forced himself to overlook it. He had been getting regular blood transfusions, but the toxicity of the city was still getting to him slowly. At least he was fairly sure that he wasn't going to lose the use of his legs again. He, Sketchy, and Original Cindy had been getting regular transfusions every week from a specific transgenic. Logan got his from Joshua, Sketchy went to Alec for blood, and Original Cindy received hers from Gem. It took the edge off the city's effect, but it didn't take away all of it. They still had spells of nausea, dizziness, and weakness. Then again, things could have been worse, they could have been dead already.

"What happened?"

Max sat upright and rolled her eyes. "Where do I start? Sketchy's being an idiot, Mole is blowing up every time he sees a flash of light, and everyone is getting so bored that a fight seems like good entertainment. I'm just not cut out for this leadership stuff. I can help out a few people at a time, but hundreds? You may as well tell me to stop eating."

Logan smiled a little, hoping to cheer her up. "And we all know that's never gonna happen, right?"

Her face lit up for a moment, but the moment was ruined as soon as Alec's tall figure came sauntering around the corner. He froze for a moment, fully aware of how Logan's face turned almost completely cold at the sight of him. Max didn't look too pleased with him either, which meant that he must have interrupted something. _So much for timing,_ he thought with a touch of frustration. It was easier for him to avoid Logan these days, because he could feel the older man's resentment. Not that he blamed him, who wouldn't be pissed at their girl saying that she's with someone else that you know? 

"Maybe I'll just leave you two alone for a while," he said uncomfortably, turning to walk back around the corner he had come from.

"No, I'll go. I mean, why should you be the one to leave, right?" Logan snapped, only a touch of bitterness in his voice. Alec had to hand it to him, he could hold his emotions in check if he really worked at it. He wanted to protest, but Logan was gone before an argument could be made.

"You couldn't have waited to leave that bar for five more minutes?" Max growled, absentmindedly studying the runes on her wrist.

"Don't blame me. You never should have dragged me into this whole situation, it just makes things that much worse. You should have told him you were sleeping with a hobo or something."

"He's not stupid enough to believe that. At least you're a plausible boyfriend."

Alec nearly bit into his cheek, she just didn't seem to be getting the point. "I'll take that as a compliment, but I still think you should tell Logan the truth. This tension isn't doing you guys any good. It's distracting you from leading this place, and it's keeping him from staying as healthy as possible. Plus, I don't like getting fried by his eyes every single time I go into the same room he's in. I think everyone would be happier if you two would just work it out."

Max suddenly jumped to her feet, strode over to him, and pressed her palm against his forehead. "You feel this? This is something, innocent as it is, that Logan could never get from me." She pulled her hand back and kicked the bucket she had been sitting on so that it smashed against the brick wall behind it. "I don't want him to get hurt. You don't understand at all, he's the only truly good thing that has happened to me in my entire life. That's why the last thing I want to do is hurt him. If the only way I can manage that is to make him stop caring about me, then so be it."

Alec snorted. "Now you're the one who doesn't understand. You haven't pushed him away from you, much less made him stop caring for you. The only thing you've done is made him hate me, as well as making everyone around you two miserable. I know both of you try to hide it, but you're being as negative as it is humanly possible to be, and it's dragging everyone down. And you're the one person who should realize that the last thing this city needs is to be more depressed than it already is!" By the time Alec had finished with his rant, he realized he was breathing heavily and a small line of sweat hovered above his right eyebrow. 

Max was stunned speechless. Alec usually never spoke so seriously, and the fact that he was trying to shove her and Logan back together was almost enough to make her wonder if the air in Terminal City was starting to get to him. They both remained where they were, staring silently at the ground and pondering everything that had just been said. Max was seriously considering what Alec had said, while Alec was praying that she wasn't going to blow up at him like she had been prone to do lately.

Neither one of them noticed that Logan was just on the inside of the building that Alec was in front of, listening through a broken window. What had just gone on was certainly news to him.

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Ames White barely managed to suppress a shudder as the burn of the alcohol he was drinking made its way down his throat. "Karen, what the hell did you put in this thing?" he asked, eyeing the reddish-brown liquid in his glass. The Asian woman behind the counter grinned at his reaction.

"It's a secret. I wondered if you'd like it, it seems to be too strong for anyone else."

"It's good alright. You might just have to share your secret with me." He forced his face to remain expressionless as Karen winked playfully at him. Joking around was fine, but he knew that she wanted more than everyday flirting from him. Not that he wasn't interested, but he didn't have the time for even a one night stand at the moment.

"Sir, the police just got a call from some kids claiming that they know how to get into Terminal City without the transgenics' knowledge. They even said they know where the building is that they use as their headquarters." Otto looked as though he was hoping this would be good news to his boss as he warily gauged White's reaction to the information.

A slow smile spread over White's face. He tilted his head back and let the rest of his drink flow straight to his stomach, then banged the glass down onto the table. "Let's go. There's something I have to repay 452 for," he chuckled as he pulled his jacket on. _I'll not only pay her back, but I'll give her interest as well._

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A/N: It's not extremely long, and the real plot hasn't really started yet, but things will get rolling quickly after this. It's weird, I had two other stories I had been planning on doing, but this plot popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to give it a try. Press the nice little button down there and tell me what you think.


	2. The Stage Is Set

A/N: Ugh, I'm so sorry this took me so long. I had the first half of this chapter done last week, but I haven't been on the computer much lately so I didn't get a chance to finish it. Sorry for the wait. :(

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Disclaimer: The moment I own DA, I'll let you know.

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 2: The Stage Is Set

Max carelessly let her legs dangle over the edge of her window. She was one of the few residents of Terminal City that had her own room, and the thing she liked the most about it was the fact that it had a huge window and it was high up on its building, the ninth floor to be exact. It wasn't anywhere near as freeing as the Space Needle, but it was the most relaxing place she had come across in this miserable sector. It was fairly secluded too, the window faced into the alley behind the apartment complex. 

Her mind had been screaming at her for the past few hours, ever since Alec had made it more than clear that he didn't like playing the role of the bad guy in the little drama she had forced onto his shoulders. Maybe it would just be easier in the long run to tell Logan the truth. She'd still have to be careful about physical contact, but why couldn't she do that honestly? Despite the fact that she didn't want to admit it to herself, she knew the truth. It was just easier to let Logan believe that she was with someone else. Why was it her first instinct to take the easy way out? Only about two months ago she had been considering leaving town, but she had been snapped back to reality by the spitting image of herself. _Maybe I need her to come back and give me that nasty left hook again._

As she tried to sort herself out, she was startled out of her thoughts by the clear ringing of the telephone. She sighed and slid back into her apartment, grabbing the phone with a slightly over-tight grip. "What is it?" she snapped irritably.

"There's newcomers," came Luke's nervous tone. He always hated talking to her when she was angry, and her tone of voice was making it clear that that's what she was.

"How far away?"

"They're a few hundred yards from the main entrance, trying not to be seen by the sector police. We need to send someone out to tell them where to go."

Max held back her groan of frustration. Why did she have to supervise everything that went on around here? "I'll be there in a sec," she said, struggling to keep her feelings from coming out in her voice. Slamming the phone down hard enough for the table beneath it to creak in protest, she grabbed her jacket and stalked out the door.

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Ignoring the horrible stench of the sewage surrounding him, White made his way through the sewers beneath Terminal City. _Why did the brats insist on meeting me down here? Any idiot could figure out that the best way to get into this freak zoo is through the sewers. _He just hoped that those kids had something extra to tell him. 

He would have allowed Otto to tag along, but he wasn't sure if the situation would be too much for him. The poor man might step on something and alert the transgenics of their presence. In that case, if the transgenics didn't tear him to pieces, White would. He wouldn't accept failure when it came to something this important. Actually, he didn't accept failure in almost any situation. He didn't even accept it of himself, which was what made 452 such a delicate issue with him. He didn't like the fact that she seemed to elude him every time he got close to having her within his grasp.

"Are you Agent White?" asked a male voice that was probably supposed to come off sounding tough, but it seemed to be trembling slightly. White decided to have a little fun with him.

Turning on his heel sharply, he let his face come to a halt just inches away from a now terrified-looking teenage boy, flanked by three other teens. Twisting his face into a horrible sneer, he let his breath wash over the youth's face as he spoke. "That's _Special _Agent White to a punk like you. Do you think you're so tough to come up behind a stranger in the dark of a sewer and try to make yourself seem intelligent by making it sound like you've got information on a delicate matter that we could figure out for ourselves without your so-called _help_?" He had to struggle not to laugh at the shocked looks on their faces. They'd probably never heard such a long sentence in their life.

A gutsy girl from behind the group stepped forward, obviously working hard to keep her lip from shaking under the glare of his cold eyes. "We didn't just call you out here to waste your time, we actually have some useful information. It's not as simple as just walking under the place and popping up somewhere." Her voice came across surprisingly calm. White couldn't help but feel a spark of admiration, the girl had some spunk in her. Of course, he could outdo her.

"Why don't you just share your brilliant scheme with me and let me decide for myself if you're wasting my time?" he hissed, never blinking as his eyes tore into hers.

It was an obvious struggle for her, but she didn't allow herself to blink. She apparently had a lot of pride too. "We happen to know for a fact that there's a group of new transgenics trying to make their way into the city. Now, there is one particular group of manholes that are used for bringing in the new recruits, each of which is well-guarded. When the newcomers are brought in, they are checked to make sure that they're actually transgenics, but this needs to be done very thoroughly. Their only flaw in the system is that they don't have enough qualified people to do this, so they end up pulling their guards away from their manholes in order to let them check the newcomers. It's during those five or ten minutes that you can get in without them ever knowing." She seemed to be satisfied that she'd said all she needed to.

White mulled this over for a moment, trying to come up with a mistake in what the girl had said. "What's your name?"

This seemed to surprise her for a minute, but she cleared her face of its stunned expression and replied, "Christine."

"Well, Christine, you seem to have actually given me something I can use. Are you sure there's no secondary guards that are appointed to take over the main guards' positions during that little space of time?"

She nodded assuredly. "I'm positive."

He smirked slightly. "Haven't you heard that only fools are positive?" At the angered look on her face, he glanced at his watch and shook his head briskly. "Never mind. You people are coming with me so I know I'm not being sent into a suicide mission."

One of the boys rolled his eyes. "Will it matter if we're there or not?"

A cold smile spread over White's features. "There's less chance of me getting hit by a bullet if I have company."

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Max glanced out the window of the guards' facility. Behind the broad forms of the sector police, she could barely make out the shapes of five people hiding in the shadows far back from the fence. They hadn't been detected by anyone yet, but they weren't hidden well enough for that luck to hold up.

"How long have they been there?"

Dix shrugged. "They were first noticed around 1900 hours, but it wasn't until nearly fifteen minutes ago that we determined that they're possible transgenics."

Max glanced around the room, noticing almost right away that there wasn't anyone that she trusted enough to do this. "Who's willing to go out there and direct them into the city?"

The transgenics each exchanged nervous glances, shuffling their feet and refusing to meet her eyes. Why did this have to happen on a Saturday night? It was nearly a full minute before anyone meekly raised a hand, or rather, a claw. The volunteer ended up being Tagg, a young man that appeared to have some timber wolf in his blood. "Which entrance do you want me to bring them to?"

Max thought for a moment, looking out at the pathetic bunch that stood huddled so far away. "They look like they're worn out, so bring them to Unit 3, it's the closest. Just make sure they're not being followed. We wouldn't want any unannounced visitors."

With a stiff nod, the young transgenic made his way out of the room with several eyes following him. No one ever liked the task of bringing in newcomers, it was so dangerous to go outside of their borders alone and bring in a group that had no clue what they were doing. It was almost like a form of extreme sports, except perhaps a little more dangerous.

Tagg struggled to shake off his fear as a horribly reptilian guard named Blake allowed him to enter the sewers. He managed to block out the raw stench of his surroundings, heading towards where he estimated the newcomers' position to be. The silence was strangely haunting, making him feel paranoid at every turn. Could there possibly be someone watching him? The eerie sensation of eyes following him refused to leave him, even after he stood perfectly still and strained his hearing to see if he could hear anyone nearby. Although there was no evidence that there was anyone for the next few blocks, he couldn't get rid of that watched feeling. He let out a deep sigh of relief when he finally reached his estimated destination. Climbing until he was only a few steps below the manhole cover, he reached up and slowly knocked three times on the manhole. After a moment of silence, the cover was removed and moonlight washed in over Tagg's wolfish features. 

"Friend or foe?" came a gruff female voice from above.

"That all depends on you," Tagg replied curtly. He tried to remind himself that he needed to sound as if he knew what he was doing. If these transgenics turned out to be unfriendly, the last thing he needed them to know was that he had never done this before. 

A smiling woman's face popped down into the darkness, and it surprised him when the gruff voice came from that lovely mouth. "Then take us as friends. Are you the escort?"

Lowering himself a few more steps, Tagg nodded. "How large is your party?"

"There's five of us. Couldn't you see that from where you were?"

"Of course, but it's standard procedure to double-check. Are there any injuries?"

"We're just exhausted and hungry, but it's not anything life-threatening yet."

Tagg bit his lip. "You might not find help here with that last problem. We don't have much of a supply as far as rations go, but if you have any among you that happen to eat bullets, then they could feast for a week."

Once again the oddness of the woman's gruff voice struck Tagg as she laughed. "I've been told I'm tough enough to eat bullets, but I've never tested that theory. We'll be happy as long as we have a place to sleep without having to keep both eyes open all night. Can you at least help us with that part?"

Tagg finally offered her a smile. "Yeah, we can help you there."

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Heedless of the dark, White's eyes carefully scrutinized the small group that passed him. The wolf-like transgenic that had passed by earlier was now leading a group of five, four of which looked normal. Waiting until they had rounded the corner, he slowly made his way forward while making sure that the kids never strayed far behind. They most definitely weren't fighters, but they could be used as shields if it came down to it. He turned and grabbed Christine by the arm, feeling her muscles tense under his tight grip. Some animalistic part of him wanted to squeeze harder, to make her squeal, but his rational half pushed away the urge. This wasn't the time for fun and games, he had to keep his mind on business. As soon as he got what he wanted from 452, he could satisfy himself with squeezing her until he felt bones crunch.

"You and your friends are going in first, got that?"

Her eyes flashed, but it was obvious her fear of him kept her from saying anything that she would ultimately regret. "Fine, but we'll also be the first coming back out."

He smirked as she moved to be ahead of him. _That's what she thinks._

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Logan rolled over on his cot, struggling to get comfortable. It wasn't exactly easy, he felt as though he were lying on a mattress filled with golf balls. He could hear both Sketchy and Original Cindy having the same problem, but they were the lucky ones, they were already asleep. It was just natural to keep moving around on these God-awful excuses for beds, you'd get too sore if you remained in the same position. He finally sighed in resignation and threw off his covers. Not bothering to see if it matched his sweatpants, he pulled on the nearest shirt he could reach and slowly shuffled over to the window. The movement was the first thing that caught his eye, then Mole's jaunty walk pulled his attention to it. The lizard transgenic looked as though he wanted to appear more tough than usual for some reason. He usually did this to make a first impression, so Logan could only assume one thing. There were newcomers.

"Well, I'm not going to get any rest anyways," he grumbled to himself. Slipping into a pair of shoes, he headed out the door and made his way down to the street. He was almost swept up in the mass of guards that were walking along, but a strong hand gripped his arm and pulled him away from the center of the mass.

"You don't want to get caught up in that, buddy. You wouldn't last a minute."

Logan's entire body tensed automatically as Alec's cheeky voice drilled its way into his head. "What's going on, anyways? Where is everyone headed to?"

Alec rolled his eyes, making it clear that he thought this entire process was a waste of time. "We have some new transgenics coming, and naturally Mole wants to scare the living shit out of anyone who might come in here thinking they're tough stuff. I'm just tagging along to see the fun. What are you doing out of bed?"

"As if anyone would want to be _in _that bed," Logan snorted.

Alec threw back his head and laughed. "Yeah, the setup here isn't that great, but at least we're somewhat safe. I just want this whole thing to be over, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. I'm surprised you haven't done any more Eyes Only broadcasts to try and defend us to the public."

A headache was starting to make itself felt in Logan's temples, but he shook it off. Still, his anger was starting to make him see red. "If you haven't noticed, there's no longer any equipment here for me to make the broadcast. You pretty much got rid of it all when you tried to help me set up my operation in Sandeman's house."

Alec's eyebrows lowered for a moment, then popped back up. "Did you have enough to start your whole system again?"

"Over at Sandeman's I did, but--"

Alec quickly motioned for him to shut up. "Ok, so it's all over there. We could probably get all that stuff over here, don't you think?"

Logan didn't get his chance to reply as they were shoved into the Rec Center. As soon as the newcomers were brought in, they would be blindfolded and brought here to make sure they were authentic transgenics. This would happen under many watching eyes, but there was now an extra pair that nobody had counted on.

Ames White was perched on top of a beam crossing the ceiling, surveying the crowd beneath him. He longed to spit just once to show them what he thought, but that would have to wait. He could always do that when he had what he wanted. And, as he was pleased to see by looking out the window and following Max's progress as she approached with Tagg and the newcomers, that time would be very soon.

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A/N 2: Ok, all of the main characters we'll be seeing from here on out are now in the story, but in the next one everything will really pick up the pace. I was going to make this chapter longer, but I decided to put the second half into the third chapter because otherwise it would take you a week just to read this one! Let me know what you think by pressing the little friendly button!


	3. Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Author's Note 1: I'm sorry for taking so long. School is nearly over, so the teachers are laying the homework on thick. Then I wasn't home all this past weekend, so I really didn't get the chance. As soon as school is out, I'll be able to update more regularly.

Author's Note 2: Now I'm going to deal with the two reviewers who obviously don't know me very well. First off, to **NoShipper **and **Venus**, I take it as a direct insult to my character when I'm accused of writing a story under a false heading. Obviously neither of you have much faith in people, or have read any of my writing before. If you had, you would know that I'm M/L. To **Venus**, you apparently have never visited TBW before. It's an all shipper place, which is obvious because I'm there and I'm as M/L as can be. While I like the characters of Max and White, I prefer them as enemies, not as lovers. I hope that clears things up for you. 

Now for **NoShipper**, although you said that you weren't going to read until you were sure that this was M/L, and not as you put it _Max and White together, and Logan and some other chick together. Then M/L together in the last paragraph of the last chapter_, I hope you're reading this. I'm sure you understand that a person can't reveal their whole plot in their summary, but I can safely say that it won't be M/L just in the last bit. Now, because I can see what made you think that, I'm adding a little to my summary to clear up where I'm going with my story. 

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Disclaimer: Unless I get myself a genie, then I won't be owning DA anytime soon.

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 3: Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Logan gazed around at all the unfamiliar faces around him. Most of the transgenics he knew were off duty on Saturday nights, so the only faces he recognized were Dix's and Luke's. Well, there was Mole and Alec of course, but they weren't working at the moment. 

It came as something of a surprise when Alec reached over and pulled Logan's glasses off his face. Before he could protest, Alec raised a finger to his lips. "Terminal City is supposed to be a place for transgenics, not humans. We don't know if these newcomers are safe yet, and if they aren't, we sure as hell don't want them knowing that we have ordinaries in here. You'd be one of their first targets because you'd be the easiest to get to. Also, they already figure that Eyes Only is human, so that's even more of a reason to keep your lack of strength secret."

Logan clenched his jaw, struggling to hold back his anger. He knew from the conversation he'd overheard between Alec and Max that they weren't a couple, but it didn't change his feelings. Even though they weren't really involved, if Max chose Alec as her scapegoat, did that mean she was interested? Still, despite his feelings, he knew that Alec was right. His glasses would give away the fact that he wasn't a transgenic. Besides, he could see fairly well without them. Joshua's blood was helping his eyes as well as the rest of him, it was just habit to put on the glasses.

The first one to come through the door was Max, looking slightly disconcerted. Everyone could see that by her eyes, so almost an instant later all the necks in the room were craning to see the new transgenics. Tagg was the next to come through the door, then two young X series, a psy-ops, and a tall black man with yellow eyes and what appeared to be fangs. His appearance made the group in the Rec Center back up, but in the next second they could tell that it wasn't him who had upset Max. The final person to enter the building was a young woman. She appeared to be an X4, judging by the fact that she seemed to be in her late twenties, but it was her looks that really threw everyone off. She had dark brown curls that fell to just past her shoulders, large brown eyes that looked as though they could pierce straight through someone, full lips, and creamy olive skin. Even the way she walked struck a chord with everyone nearby, it was a slinky stride that showed how confident she was. Logan's breath caught in his throat, and he heard everyone around him do the same. That woman looked almost exactly like an older version of Max. Glancing at a nearby X6 who was simply gaping at her, she smirked. "Do I have something on my face?" It was a surprisingly gruff voice that came from her throat. 

Max walked up to the highest point she could get to, and with one raised hand she had silenced the crowd. "Everyone, back up and give them some room." As soon as they had done what she asked, she turned back to the newcomers. "What are your designations?"

The group started spouting them off, and despite the fact that everyone had suspected it, a low murmur ran through the crowd when the dark-haired woman replied, "X4-452." Even Max flinched slightly when she heard that. Her encounters with clones hadn't brought her much luck in the past, even though in this case she realized that the other woman wasn't the clone, _she_ was. Silence fell over everyone again when Mole and a few others started checking the barcodes on the backs of the newcomers' necks. When it was all done and the five guards had whispered their findings to one another, Mole looked up at Max and nodded. "Everything checks out. Their barcodes are real."

She nodded back, working to keep her eyes from wandering to the X4. Instead she turned her focus to Logan, who she had just realized was there. His eyes however, were on the X4 rather than her. He looked as though he was in shock, which was pretty much how she had felt when she'd seen the other woman. Just because she had almost always been aware of the fact that Manticore was into cloning didn't mean she had to like it. It was rather creepy to know there were carbon copies of herself wandering around in the world.

********************

White had hardly been paying attention to the activities beneath him, he had forced his mind to focus on only one thing: 452. She was shifting her weight back and forth, and occasionally she would sidestep in one direction for no apparent reason. Unknown to her, she was steadily making her way to stand right below him. A triumphant gleam flashed through his eyes as she moved into position underneath him. In his mind's eye, he could practically see a large red X on the back of her neck where her barcode was as she bent forward and leaned on the railing in front of her.

"X marks the spot," he chuckled to himself as he pulled the tiny tranquilizer gun out of his pocket. He was careful not to let the tip of the dart touch him, this could knock him out for over twenty-four hours, which was exactly what it would do for her. Laying flat against the beam he was on, he carefully took aim at her neck. With any luck, it would surprise her enough to make her stand upright and let her hair fall into place over her neck, covering the tiny dart. She wouldn't stay up very long, a minute at the most.

The gun didn't make anything more than a slight _thffft_ sound as it fired, sending the dart straight into the base of Max's neck. Her hands immediately tightened their grip on the railing. Instinct was screaming at her not to move. She took long, slow, deliberate breaths, naturally slowing her heart rate. She could feel slight traces of wooziness almost immediately, but she let her breathing ward it off. She needed someone to get up here and remove whatever the hell was on the back of her neck. After a few seconds, she realized no one was even looking in her direction, there was still too much commotion over the new transgenics. She would have to get it out herself. 

Logan forced himself to tear his eyes away from the woman at the front of the room, it made him feel strange just to look at her. Every little thing she did was so much like Max that it was unbelievable. Turning his head to look at the real Max, he was forced to squint his eyes. His eyesight still wasn't perfectly clear, and he doubted Alec would give him his glasses back anytime soon. Struggling to focus on Max, he couldn't help but think that maybe he was looking at the wrong person. She was standing so still, but her right hand was slowly inching up towards her neck. Logan took a glance around to see if anyone else was looking in her direction, but it was hard for him to tell. He finally started making his way towards her.

White frowned as he saw Logan approaching. He recognized him immediately, he was the Eyes Only correspondent that his wife had spoken to about Ray, and he had also been there just after 453 had messed up her mission. _Dammit, he knows something is wrong._ Pulling out a case from his pocket, White gingerly opened it and looked at his darts. He had only been given three, but how was he going to use the last two? He could tell he would have to shoot 452 one more time, but that man would alert everyone else in the room that there was someone else there. _If he's been living in Terminal City ever since they've all been trapped here, then he would have to be a transgenic. Hopefully one of these will knock him out. _Sliding one of the darts into his gun, he carefully took aim at Logan. He decided to aim at the soft region just under the other man's jaw, seeing as how he was moving at a slight angle.

Logan had just taken his first step up the stairs when he felt the sharp sting in his neck. Immediately his hands reached out and groped for the railing, it felt as if he had just swallowed an entire bottle of Unisom, which he had done once before. Colors swam in front of his eyes, and Max's face doubled, then tripled. His mind grasped the only thing it could, seeking out the person who was doing this to him. Something in him, perhaps instinct, made him look up. He could see the edges of fingertips holding onto a beam that was just above Max. His eyes remained there for a moment, then his body slumped against the stairs. He slowly lowered himself down until he was laying awkwardly on the steps, and if anyone had been listening closely, they would have heard the whispered "Max" that he breathed out before slipping out of consciousness. 

Max struggled to focus her eyes on the stairs, but found that she couldn't. All the colors were blurring together to the point where she wasn't sure if that had been Logan coming up the stairs or not. She could hear her heartbeat pounding loudly in her ears, but that was the only thing that she could make out. Any other noises had blended together until it was like a steady humming. Her right hand had dropped back to the railing as she had watched Logan, and now her arms felt so heavy that she wasn't sure she could lift them, but everything in her was screaming that she had to get whatever the hell was in her neck out of her. Finally, she came to a very simple conclusion. She started slowly leaning forward until her forehead was resting against the railing, then let her fingers inch towards the dart. Gripping it as tightly as she could, she just barely managed to pull it out. It had buried itself deep in her skin, and her strength was draining rapidly.

White swore silently to himself, then slid the last dart into the gun. _This had better work,_ he thought angrily. He hadn't gone through all this trouble just to waste the darts and get himself killed by this group of freaks. Now he would need to aim somewhere that she couldn't reach as easily without wearing herself out. Running his eyes over her body, he noticed that while she was leaning forward her jacket had raised up. The only thing covering her skin was a thin, navy blue shirt. The dart could easily make it through that. 

Max let out a low groan of frustration that nobody heard as she felt another dart hit her in the small of her back. She sank to her knees, struggling not to move, but also not to fall asleep. She never heard the footsteps behind her, so it took her by complete surprise when a pair of hands grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up into a standing position. The girl holding her was a complete stranger, but Max could tell by her grip that she was an ordinary. How had she gotten into Terminal City? Digging her feet into the ground, Max tried to grab the railing again, but her legs gave out too soon. She was hardly awake as Christine dragged her over to the edge of the raised stand they were on and slid her down under the railing to the boy who had first tried to be tough to White. 

As the new transgenics were led out of the Rec Center, Alec turned to his side. "I suppose I can give you your glasses ba..." The words stopped as he realized that Logan was no longer standing by him. His eyes scanned the crowd, but Logan was nowhere to be seen. _He probably went to talk to Max,_ he thought with a touch of relief. Of course that was it, those two were practically inseparable. Glancing around again, he rolled his eyes. Now he couldn't see Max either.

Forcing his way through the crowd, he eventually reached the stairway leading up to the miniature floor that held most of the computer equipment. "Logan?" He dropped to his knees and reached out to check the pulse on the other man's neck. That was when his fingers brushed over the dart in his neck. Carefully lifting it out, without letting the tip touch him, he raised it gingerly to his nose. There was a slightly sour smell, as though the dart had been around rotting food. 

"Mole! Get over here!"

Smelling cigar smoke less than two seconds later, Alec didn't even bother to look up, but reached up with the dart in his hands. "Don't touch the tip, but tell me what you think this is made of."

Mole carefully took the dart into his hand and sniffed it. "I don't think the dart itself has a smell, but whoever was carrying it brought it through the same region of the sewers that our new buddies came through. This is just what they smelled like. My guess is that they were followed. But why would they shoot him? He's just an ordinary."

"I don't think this dart was meant for him, it was meant for Max, and I don't see her around."

Mole dropped his cigar to the floor and stepped on it. "In other words, we need someone to take this guy to the infirmary, and another group to search for Max."

Alec nodded. "Yeah, basically. I'll take him to the infirmary, you round some people up. Don't let anyone leave Terminal City."

********************

"Can't you take her off my hands? You're not carrying anything," grumbled Michael Brantho, the person who at the moment was in charge of carrying Max. 

White looked back at the kid and snorted. "You're too scrawny, you could use the exercise. Besides, I don't like touching scum."

"What do you think you're walking in?" Michael grumbled angrily. The words were barely out of his mouth before he found himself lying on his back in the sludge that they'd been making their way through. White put an arm around Max's middle and pulled her off the kid, then slung her over his shoulder.

"Well, whatever it is that we're walking in, you're lying in it. Maybe you can figure out what it is." With that, he turned and walked off, deliberately kicking back some slush into Michael's face. "Anyone else feel like smart talking?" The other teens looked down at Michael in disgust, then followed White through the sewers.

White stopped in mid-stride as a gentle _plunk _reached his ears. He knew the kids hadn't heard it, and they probably wouldn't have thought much of it even if they did, but he knew better. There were transgenics coming. What he didn't realize was that they were already there.

Michael was still struggling to wipe the foul-smelling slime off himself when the butt of Mole's gun was brought down on the back of his head. "Funny, I don't remember handing out backstage passes to Terminal City," he growled as he raised his gun and took aim at White's head. White reacted immediately, grabbing one of the other teens and using him to block his body. As soon as the bullet was firmly lodged in the boy's ribs, White took off with Christine and a tall boy named Jacob hurrying to keep up. 

Tagg threw himself out of a side passage and straight into White. The two of them crashed into the wall, while Max dropped to the ground. Jake leaned down and picked her up, then continued down the path, ignoring the fight going on. It was over quickly, but Tagg managed to dig his pocketknife into White's chest before his neck was snapped by one hand. White didn't even bother to pull the knife out of his flesh, he simply took off after the teens.

Mole finally had to throw down his gun to keep running, it was just slowing him down. He hadn't expected White to run so fast, he just didn't look that speedy. He didn't even appeared to be hampered by the stab wound in his chest. While the blade wasn't that large, Tagg had good aim. The blade had to have at least punctured a lung. 

Actually, the blade _had _poked into White's left lung, but he couldn't even feel it. At the moment the only thing he was focusing on was the light ahead that came from the manhole that the kids had opened. Christine was climbing out, while Jacob waited to hand Max off to her. At that point, White pulled the knife out of his chest and hurled it at Jacob's back. The boy abruptly dropped Max on the ground and bent over with a gasp, struggling to reach the middle of his back. White kicked him out of the way, lifted Max up over his shoulder, and climbed out of the sewers. He didn't feel any satisfaction until he shoved the manhole cover back into place and saw the look of horror on Christine's face. 

"Let him out!" she shrieked. "They'll kill him!"

"That's the point," he snapped, then turned and started walking down the alley.

She lunged forward and grabbed his arm. "You're not leaving them down there, I'll call the police if you do!"

He rolled his eyes and shrugged her hand off of him. "I _am_ the police."

It didn't surprise him at all when she pulled out her own knife and pressed it against his throat, but he didn't give her any time to get ideas. Letting go of Max, he grabbed Christine's arm and bent it backwards, snapping the elbow in the wrong direction. She didn't even have time to scream before he grabbed her face and twisted hard, easily turning her head backwards on her body. Finally, with a tired sigh, he picked up Max again and headed for his car.

********************

Alec was on his feet as soon as Dana, one of the best Terminal City doctors, came out of the storage room that they often used for examinations. "Do you know what that dart did to him?"

She shook her head, looking worn out. "All I know is it's some form of sedative, and obviously it's a strong dosage seeing as how it was meant for a transgenic. The problem is that the customary sedatives that a doctor would use for an anesthetic are so hard to come across that I doubt the sniper would have been able to get their hands on it, so I'm not sure what I would give him as an antidote. That's what he'll need, otherwise I'm not sure what's going to happen to him."

Alec's head snapped up. "Is there something wrong? What state is he in exactly?"

"Right now he's comatose, and I have no idea whether or not he'll come out of it or just continue to get worse. I need to know exactly what drug was used on him to know how things will turn out, or if there's even something to counteract its effects."

A gruff female voice came from behind them. "Did you say he's comatose?"

Both Alec and Dana turned around to see X4-452 standing there, waiting for an answer. Dana finally spoke up. "Yes, he's been that way for about fifteen minutes now."

"Is there any of the fluid left from the dart?"

Alec raised an eyebrow. "How did you know there was a dart?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I've been listening to your entire conversation." When Dana came back out, X4-452 took the vial of fluid that she was handed. There was only a tiny amount at the bottom, but it was obviously a clear fluid. When they looked harder, they could see tiny black flecks in it. She opened the vial and tipped some of it onto her fingertip and licked it. When she was done, she handed the vial back to Dana. "From what I can tell, it's GHB, or gamma-hydroxybuterate. It's a depressant that's mostly clear, often with some black particles floating in it and a slightly salty taste. It's usually used at parties, so it's fairly easy to obtain. Getting a slight overdose would mean passing out, which is probably what the sniper meant to happen. They must have overdosed too far though, that would explain why he's comatose. Was there any sign of respiratory or cardiovascular failure?"

Dana shook her head. "No, he's fine in that respect. If I remember right, that usually only happens if GHB is mixed with other sedatives. I think it was just a strong dose."

"He should be fine then, he'll come out of it in a few hours." 

Alec had been standing there through this whole conversation with his arms crossed. "Ok, now that you've proved you can sound like you have a medical degree, could you tell us just why you're sharing this with us?"

"I was simply concerned, is there any law against that?" With a familiar flip of her hair, she walked back around the corner.

Alec frowned at the spot where she had disappeared from his view. He didn't quite know why, but he didn't like that woman. He hoped she didn't decide to come around and hand out any more medical advice while he was here.

________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note 3: As always, please review. I would say read and review, but if you're at this part of the page then you have obviously already read it so there's no need to add that first part. Anyways, to get past my rantings, please leave me a little bit. Even if you leave me one word, I'll be happy! Of course, more than one word is better, but if you're really pressed for time then I guess go ahead. :)


	4. Heart To Heart

Author's Note: Ok, once again **Venus**, you still have your views of TBW wrong. I sincerely urge you to actually join the place and take a look around. Now, I don't care what Yodes said because I've known for a long time that she doesn't like Logan, but as long as she doesn't come around throwing it in my face then I say she's free to have her opinion. Also, if you had actually gone to TBW yourself, you would have realized there are a few special sections for the different ships. She could have said what she wanted in the M/A section, in a review thread for an M/A fic, or even in her own fics, and I don't think it would upset anyone too much. M/L people can do the same things in their given areas. If you still don't like what you _were told_ she said, then feel free to contact one of the moderators of TBW, Enigma or Sorrow. TBW is one of the friendliest boards I've come across in a long time, and it really upsets me to see that someone apparently has a grudge against it. 

As for what you said about M/Lers never saying anything bad about Alec, that's not necessarily true. I used to be a member of an M/L board (which I will not name because I happen to find slandering another site to be a rather meaningless thing to do) that wouldn't read a fic that had Alec as one of the main characters, which I find ridiculous because he was one of the main characters on the show. If you had read half the things there about him, you wouldn't be so quick to say _all _M/Lers are accepting of Alec. By the way, I left that site no more than a week after I joined.

Don't worry everybody, we'll get on to the story soon. I still have to address one more person. **Starfire**, I think it's rather unfair to judge a person's writing by their ship or what characters they like. Not all M/A stories are bad, just like not all M/L stories are good. It all happens to be in your interpretation of the story. If someone happened to hate, oh, we'll say Joshua because he's not too involved, then wouldn't they be naturally prejudiced against any story that has him as a leading character, no matter how well it's written? And also, not that I find being called a White-lover offensive (it's actually a compliment in my book) but I've read some White-centered fics that make some of those other stories out there seem like five-year-olds wrote them. Like I said, it's unfair to everyone if you judge them by the characters they like.

Ok, on to the story. ;)

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Disclaimer: Haven't found any genies yet. They're so hard to find these days.

****

Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

****

Chapter 4: Heart to Heart

Logan was immediately aware of a dull headache in his temples as his eyes finally opened. Colors still weren't in their correct places, and sounds seemed to come from miles away, but at least he was awake. He lay still for several minutes, struggling to focus his eyes and bring everything out of the strange, colored fog it was surrounded by. When things finally seemed to be at least somewhat normal, he braced his elbows against the old cot he was laying on and pushed himself up into a slouched sitting position. 

"You're finally awake. I wasn't sure you were going to wake up at all for the next couple days." 

Logan looked up to see Dana, a rather quiet psy-ops doctor, standing at the far corner of the room. "How long was I out?"

"About seven hours. You've been in a comatose state for most of that time, but you pulled out of it about fifteen minutes ago. The blood that Joshua's been donating to you has obviously done wonders for your recovery speed."

He nodded wearily. "If only it made me immune from headaches."

Her eyebrows knitted in concern. "I didn't know that was a side-effect of the drug you were given. How serious is it?"

He shook his head quickly. "It has nothing to do with what happened to me. I've just been getting more headaches lately, it might be the air in Terminal City. Last time I checked with Sketchy and Cindy, they said they were having them too. Just how toxic is the air around here anyways?"

To his surprise, Dana chuckled. "It's hardly anything to worry about, even if you weren't getting transfusions from Joshua. It used to be life threatening, but most of it has dissipated by now. Now the most it will do is make you sleep much more than usual, and occasionally give severe migraines. Then again, you're getting the blood transfusions, so you're just getting mild headaches and a little drowsiness."

"You make it sound like I've been jugging cold medicine."

"Cold medicine? Of all the things you could be jugging, you choose cold medicine?" Alec cracked as he sauntered into the room. "The least you could have done was break out the hard liquor."

Sensing the immediate change in the tension level of the room, Dana quietly let herself out of the room. She had hardly gone ten steps when X4-452's gruff voice reached her ears. "Is that guy awake yet?"

Dana turned and forced her regular fake smile onto her face. "Are you family?"

X4-452 smirked. "Are any of us actually family?"

"I didn't mean it literally. When we say that here, we basically are asking if you're close with the patient."

At this, X4-452 shrugged. "I haven't spoken to him, but seeing as how I was the one who determined what was wrong with him, I'm a little curious to see how he turned out."

Dana already didn't like the other woman. Just who did she think she was? "He would have come out of it the same way whether or not you'd announced what he'd been given."

"He wouldn't have if you had given him antibiotics," sneered the other woman.

"I wouldn't have," Dana snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to see to. Just don't go into that room, the last thing he needs is to have you for a visitor."

********************

If it hadn't been for the fact that everything hurt so much, Max would have thought she was dead. Everything was so dark that her eyes hadn't adjusted yet, although she had no doubt she'd be able to see perfectly in under a minute. Also, the silence was so thick that if it wasn't for her instincts screaming that there was someone there, she would have believed she was alone. As silently as she could possibly manage it, she slid to her feet and started blinking her eyes furiously, trying to get them to adjust faster. As soon as she could see vague shapes, she headed towards what appeared to be a door. 

"Where do you think you're going?" White's voice had hardly registered in her head before she found herself sitting on the ground, sporting a severely cut lip. A second later he dropped to the ground from where he'd been hanging on to the ceiling pipes. "You'd think after all that special training that one of the first things on your list would be to look up. Or was that class in the last ten years of Manticore's existence?"

Max reached up and touched her lip, surprised at the amount of blood that was left on her finger, then swung out her left leg and sent it sideways at his knees. He deftly jumped into the air, easily going over her leg, and kicked her hard in the stomach. 

"That wouldn't have been too bad...if it had worked," he sneered, watching her eyes follow his every movement. He could see one thing for sure, his father had managed to make some incredibly dangerous creatures. If he wasn't on the top of his game, she wouldn't give him any second chances.

"Go to hell," she snapped, slowly raising herself to her feet. She couldn't believe he was letting her stand up, but it didn't take long to see why. As soon as she had adopted a fighting stance, he kicked her in the stomach again.

"You're in no shape to fight me. You're still getting over the little bit of medicine I gave you. Maybe you'll be a little bit more cooperative in this state. Should I just get out what we both already know is coming?"

"The only thing I'd be able to tell you is whether or not your son is in a casket, I don't know his location. Or should I say, the location of his grave?" The words had hardly left her throat when his fingers were digging into her flesh.

"Don't mess around with something like this, especially when you're dealing with me," he hissed, slamming her back against the wall. She felt a gentle trickle of blood make its way down the back of her neck.

"Why? Because you're such a tough guy? All I would have to do is use a dog whistle and bring your big doggie playmate from JamPony back for another round. You didn't seem so tough compared to him. In fact, I seem to remember saving your life. I don't suppose that gets me a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card?"

"Maybe if we had a rulebook lying around, but I tend to break rules at every possible opportunity."

Staring him levelly in the eye, Max furiously sent a well-aimed glob of spit into it. "That makes two of us."

White hurled her against the far wall, rubbing his eye roughly. "I guess you don't have much interest in life? You must not, if you were stupid enough to pull a cheap stunt like that. You may be designed to last, but let's see how long you can make it without any nourishment."

Max could only hold her throbbing head as he slammed the door to her little personal holding cell shut.

********************

"So you're telling me they can't find Max?" Logan asked in disbelief. Wasn't he supposed to be surrounded by the most efficient trackers in the country? 

Alec sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. It was definitely White, Mole could testify to that. He was just too fast to catch up to."

Logan rolled his eyes. "He was carrying a young woman! I don't care how strong he is, a fast young transgenic that wasn't weighted down by anything should have been able to catch him. I don't like the thought of her being trapped by him, she might not have enough time left for us to get her out."

Alec rolled his eyes. "C'mon, he's not going to do anything until she gives up the information on his son."

The older man's glare cut Alec's glimmer of hope to shreds. "Now _you_ come on, Alec. You've been held captive by that man before, do you really believe he'll keep her alive? It's not like she's the only one that knows about Ray. Everyone in charge of Terminal City knows he's alive, and I know his location. That's not even including my contacts that I used to set up a safe house for the kid. I'm sure he's realized that, and eventually his hate is going to take over and he'll kill Max. After all, she is the only thing that can stop the Coming, whatever the hell it is."

Alec hated to admit it, but Logan was right. Things weren't really looking good for Max so far. "You know what? I think I need a drink. I'll be back when I'm good and drunk, then we'll talk some more when I don't feel so damn morbid."

"Is it because you miss your girlfriend?"

The X5's head snapped up. Logan had never spoken so blatantly about the so-called relationship. "Well, it's not really that, I just..."

Logan held up a hand to silence him. "From what I heard the other day, I can't believe you're still playing your role as the boyfriend. You didn't seem to be too happy about it then."

"Are you saying...?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I know about how Max just used you as an excuse not to be near me. She thought she was protecting me."

Alec held up both hands. "Hey man, you've got to know I didn't even find out about her little story until long after you did. I tried to tell you at your house that one day, but I got the feeling I should just shut up and leave."

Logan sighed. "I know, I wasn't really in the mood for listening at the time. The only thing I don't get is why she chose you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I was convenient. I was always around, I'm a transgenic like her, not to mention the fact that I look like someone she used to be close to. It wouldn't have taken much to persuade you that I was with her, but she only did it because she loved you enough to give you up. Think that over for a little while."

As Alec left the room, Logan was more than aware that there was someone standing farther up the hall. He could feel the stranger's eyes on him, but he couldn't get a good look at them. A moment later though, he realized who it was as she came slinking into the room with that horribly familiar stride.

"How are you feeling?" X4-452's gruff voice asked amiably.

"Why do you care? I've never even met you before."

She smiled playfully, once again reminding him painfully of Max and the danger she was in. "I heard about what happened to you and I was simply curious. After all, the leader of this place is gone and you might know what happened. I'm a natural detective."

"For your information, I'm fine, but I'm not really in the mood for visitors at the moment. I just had a bad enough time with the last one."

To his surprise, she threw back her head and laughed. "Oh yes, I heard all of that. What's the reason she had to protect you anyways?"

"That's not something I'm comfortable discussing with complete strangers," he replied coldly, wishing she would just go away. Why was she so interested in his personal life anyways? It didn't concern her, and he didn't want her involved. 

"I understand, I probably wouldn't talk about it either if I was in your situation, whatever it is. Like you said, it's not for strangers to know. What are you? An X4, X3?"

Logan had to quickly work to keep his shock from popping out on his face. Although he knew that strangers needed to believe he was a transgenic, he'd never expected to be asked what division he was in. He couldn't help but blurt out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm an I.T. concentrate, or a battle processor. I can say the almost exact possibility of something happening." _Of all the times for me to think of Brain,_ he thought irritably.

Her eyebrows shot up. "Really? I was under the impression that all of your kind were fat and without any positive physical attributes?"

Logan felt his stomach drop uncomfortably as she made a quick scan of his body with her eyes, not even bothering to be subtle. "That's not true of all of us, just some. Why did you want to know?"

She shrugged. "Just trying to get you talking. It's awfully uncomfortable just sitting here in silence."

Logan tried not to groan. "You don't even have to be here at all. If you really want to have a conversation, why don't you at least start with the basics and not jump into the deep stuff right off the bat? How about something simple, such as: what's your name?"

"If you have to know, my name is Minx. I don't suppose you'll share yours?"

"Logan," he replied quietly. "And I'd rather be alone right now, if that's alright with you."

Rather than put up an argument, Minx nodded. "Yeah, you've been through quite a bit recently. I guess I'll see you later, hopefully. Oh, and I hope that Max girl comes back."

Despite his relief to her back as she headed for the door, Logan felt a twinge of guilt. He'd been rude just because she'd been curious. "Stop by again some other time, maybe when I'm a little more awake."

He could see the surprise on her face, but then she smiled and nodded. "I'll be sure to do that. Bye."

********************

Max tried to make herself comfortable on the cold floor of her temporary prison, but it was practically impossible. She couldn't stop worrying; Logan had been given a shot of the same stuff she had, undoubtedly with the same amount of whatever the drug had been. She just hoped he was ok. _Of course he's ok, he's surrounded by transgenics, all with medical training. There's no reason that he shouldn't be just fine._

Still, that strange feeling that something was wrong with him wouldn't leave her. She kept feeling the sudden urge to run to him and make whatever was happening stop, but she could tell that she wouldn't be getting out of here any time soon. She just hoped that when she did get out, it wouldn't be in a body bag.

********************

Otto nearly spilled the coffee in his hand when White suddenly entered the room, a strange smile on his face as he slid something into his pocket. "Otto, my friend, things finally seem to be coming along nicely."

"Does this mean you caught 452? Shouldn't you contact--"

White quickly raised a hand to cut him off. "Yes, I caught 452, but no, I'm not going to contact anyone just yet. I have some stuff I need to take of with her first." Then, pausing and slightly squeezing the object in his pocket with excitement, he said, "From the way things are going, I just might get what I need sooner than I expected."

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Author's Note 2: Semester exams start tomorrow, so I figured I should squeeze this in before I had to devote all my time to studying. Actually, that's what I should have been doing while I was writing this, but we all have to take a break sometime, even a five hour one. :) Like always, leave a little something to cheer up my day. Flames are fine too, but just remember that it was your choice to come and read this, nobody held a gun to your head and made you. So, press the button directly below, and just type away!


	5. Only Chance

Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long, but I just got the season 1 DVDs and I've been completely wrapped up in them. After watching that season again, it's hard to go back to writing season 2. I'm changing my summary a little bit again, it seems that my writing has taken a whole different direction from where I originally thought it was going to be. The main goal will still be the same, but getting to it is going to be a little different, especially the whole storyline with Minx. Just figured I'd tell everybody.

Disclaimer: I thought I saw a magic lamp yesterday, but it was just my imagination. I'm still looking though.

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 5: Only Chance

Alec sat back in his seat in the Rec Center as he listened to Mole tearing into the trackers that he had sent after White. "Are you telling me that you have no idea which direction he headed in? Dammit, he was escaping with the leader of Terminal City! He had to have at least left skid marks as he was driving!"

Derek, the male X5 who had led the expedition, rolled his eyes. "I'm sure he did, but you have to realize that practically every ten minutes in Seattle there is someone tearing around in a crappy old vehicle to escape from one thing or another. There's so many idiots these days that steal vehicles or rob someplace big that go through the same general area that White took Max through. After all, the police aren't too keen to come near Terminal City, so it's a great escape route for most criminals. In fact, just about an hour ago the police chased a street gang through our area that had stolen marijuana and cocaine out of the police station's evidence room. Or, as I like to refer to it, their own personal store. We heard the whole thing on one of our police scanners. My point is that there's almost no way to determine which skid marks belong to White and which ones don't."

Now it was Mole's turn to roll his eyes. "Haven't you ever heard of asking bystanders? There's so many homeless people around this area that you should have been able to make a map of the exact streets White has been on ever since he started his little campaign."

Derek turned his head and pointed to the barcode on the back of his neck. "I can't just walk up to people with this thing still on me. Even the homeless are too careful these days, I wouldn't be able to keep this hidden from them. Plus, we don't have any equipment to remove it."

Mole raised a wrist and glanced at the watch on it. "Fine, we'll handle things my way." Not caring to explain further, he turned on his heel and walked out the door. With a weary sigh, Derek and the other trackers got out of their seats and followed him. Alec wanted to follow out of sheer curiosity, but something at the edge of the doorway caught his eye. It looked for a moment as if there had been a large pair of eyes watching the scene. Making sure to be completely silent, Alec made his way to the door and grabbed the intruder by the throat. A moment later, he let go in disgust.

"Don't you ever mind your own business?"

Minx crossed her arms and glared right back at him. "I wasn't aware this was a private meeting, and besides, this _does_ concern me. It concerns everyone living in Terminal City. Max was the leader here, and finding her is a priority to everyone. Do you have a problem with that?"

"I don't have a problem with anyone else trying to find Max, but I _do_ have a problem with you." 

Minx's fist tightened as though she wanted to throw a punch, but at that second Logan came around the corner. "What's going on here?"

Alec's eyes rested on the other man for a moment, then he shrugged. "I'm not the one to ask. Talk to her. Then again, it might be better if you avoided her."

Standing behind Minx, Logan pointed to his own eyes. Ever since the incident during his last time in the Rec Center, he didn't like being without his glasses. It made him feel somewhat vulnerable because he wasn't at the top of his game. Before he could say anything out loud, Alec patted the pocket on his jacket and shook his head. Obviously he didn't want to give the glasses back yet. Logan got the feeling that his reasoning had something to do with Minx.

Minx turned in her spot and saw the look that passed between the two. "Did I miss something?"

Alec smirked at her and started walking down the street. "You've missed everything. You may as well not waste your time trying to catch up." He couldn't help but give a sigh of relief once he was out of the woman's sight. There was something wrong about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The only thing he knew for sure was that he didn't like the thought of her being around Logan. Who knew what she would find out? Worse yet, what would she do with the information?

Minx's eyes never left Alec until he was out of her sight. She could sense his hostility towards her and she didn't like it one bit. Shrugging it off, she turned to Logan. "Do you find that guy as annoying as I do?"

Logan shrugged. "Sometimes, but he's been useful before. You wouldn't think so, but Alec knows what he's doing when it really comes down to it. Then again, I guess that goes for everyone in Terminal City. All that training has to pay off somehow."

********************

Strangely enough, Mole was saying something similar to Derek and the other trackers as they walked through the streets just outside Terminal City, but not quite with the same meaning. "That training you idiots received in Manticore should have helped you out _somehow_. Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

Derek's hand nearly went for his gun, Mole was starting to really piss him off. "I've spent most of my life being trained to track people, I should think I know how to do it better than you."

Mole shook his head irritably. "That's not what I meant. Seeing as how you couldn't find any answers the regular way, you have to become a little more unorthodox in your tracking. Sometimes you have to come out from under cover and try things a different way. Didn't you at least learn how to intimidate people?"

Derek sneered as he studied Mole. "I don't need to bother. I could just walk over there with you by my side and they'd go into cardiac arrest."

Without any warning, Mole backhanded the X5 with all his strength. "I don't need a smartass right now, I need someone useful. Then again, sometimes you just have to do things yourself." Shaking his head with disgust at the other man, Mole approached a group of teens that were huddled near a barrel with a fire in it, making sure to keep his face in the shadow of his hood.

"Have you kids seen a black car with tinted windows come through here? It was probably moving pretty fast."

One of the kids turned around, chewing on a rather large hunk of gum as he studied Mole's frame. "We see a lot of black cars go through here going fast, none of them exactly stand out."

Mole could tell this kid wasn't going to make things easy for him. "What about the tinted windows? There's not quite as many of those running around."

The boy turned and looked at the open box that apparently held the last of their food supply, then smirked. "My memory's not so good. I might remember more if you gave me some incentive."

At this, Mole smiled. "I don't have cash or food, but is this enough incentive for you?" Keeping one hand on the gun in his jacket, he reached up and pulled down his hood. Their reaction seemed somewhat delayed, for several seconds they could only stand there and stare at him. _Simpletons,_ he thought with some amusement. This would be too easy.

"It w-went th-that way," a girl on the other side of the barrel stuttered. Mole mockingly pretended to bow.

"Thank you, my lady," he joked, then walked back to where one of the other trackers was nursing Derek's head. "Well? You guys heard the lady, let's get moving!"

********************

Max's stomach growled so loudly that it made her jump, then she sighed and flopped back down on the cot that was in the room. White hadn't been kidding when he had said he wouldn't give her any nourishment. Not so much as a crumb of bread had entered her cell since he had left her in it yesterday. Of course, she knew she could last quite a while yet. The only thing that really surprised her was that nobody from Terminal City had found this place. She was sure that she was still in Seattle, and she knew that Terminal City was the home of some of the best trackers in the world. Even though she knew it could be a long time before there was even an attempt at a rescue mission, they should have at least _found_ her.

Perhaps she had become too dependent on outside help. Honestly, she really couldn't remember when that had happened, but it had. For a long time now, she had always had someone watching out for her back, helping her out. Logan, Zack, Alec, Joshua, and even the crew from Jam Pony had helped her out in almost all of the dangerous situations she'd been in for the last couple years. It had never used to be like that before. Before she had come to Seattle, she was always looking out for herself. There was never any thought of someone else coming to the rescue, it was a do-it-yourself world for her. 

If she couldn't depend on anyone else for help, then how was she going to get out of here? That door was way too thick, she would never be able to get through it. Why did she feel so damn helpless? The only thought that kept running through her head was that all she needed was a little more strength. Just a little more strength. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright on the cot. Maybe there _was _a way.

Max leaned back against the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest nervously. What if they didn't believe her? Did they know the steps that Manticore had taken to fix all her little quirks? Did they even know about her former flaws at all? As long as they didn't know, this might work out. Still, she couldn't even be sure that their equipment gave out the right kinds of wavelengths. Shaking her head fiercely, she stood up and crossed to the other side of the room. This had to work, it just might be her only chance.

********************

White groaned and shoved his head under his makeshift pillow, which was actually just pile of work shirts. What the hell was all that banging? He had been trying to take a short nap on what passed for a couch in the dingy little office that was above Max's cell. Despite not needing as much sleep as normal humans, he did need some level of it. His body needed a break every now and then.

A knock on the door ruined all chances of getting a few peaceful hours of rest. "Sir? There's a commotion in 452's holding cell."

White rolled his eyes as he sat up and reached for his gun. "I don't suppose any of you idiots standing guard happened to take a peek at what was going on?"

Otto shook his head as he opened the door. "No sir, she could overpower us too easily." He tried not to let the expression on his face change as White stood up and shoved his gun into his belt. He couldn't help but feel afraid of this man, he had seen his temper on several occasions, none of which had been pleasant. Apparently he wasn't the only one who felt that fear, judging by the way that the guards cringed as he threw open the door to the basement level.

"Would anyone care to tell me just what is going on?" he snapped as he made his way to Max's door. He could hear her slamming around, it sounded as though she was trying to tear the bed off its hinges.

One of the guards finally spoke up. "We think she's having some sort of an attack," he mumbled.

"You _think_? You mean that you don't know for sure?" White didn't even have to wait for a response, he already knew what the answer would be. None of these hooligans had the courage to open the door and see what was going on. Of course, they didn't have the strength that he did, so it was probably wiser on their part to stay out of 452's reach. It was hard sometimes to remember that he was different from these people. Then again, most of the time he was glad about that.

Gripping his gun tightly, he pulled open her door and stepped inside. He was honestly surprised to see that she wasn't standing there waiting for him. As a matter of fact, the guards were right. 452 was laying on the bed, gripping the sides with all of her strength as sweat poured from her. Every muscle in her body was tense as her figure snapped around on the bed, struggling to stop the seizures. White froze as he watched her. _If something goes wrong with her, I may never get the answers I need about Ray,_ he realized. 

"Call the lab and tell them we need every doctor there to be waiting when we get there!" he shouted into the other room, then moved to Max's side. How long had she been seizing like this? He vaguely remembered hearing about a serotonin deficiency in the X5s, but wouldn't Manticore have fixed that? The only thing he did know was that if her serotonin problems weren't dealt with soon, she could go into a coma and eventually die. He'd never find out if his son was alive if she didn't make it.

********************

Logan sat in a booth at the Black Knight, eating one of the cheap cheeseburgers that they served out. It actually wasn't half bad, some of the transgenics had apparently learned to cook pretty well. He was just squirting more ketchup onto it when a familiar voice came from behind him. 

"I never thought I'd ever see the great Logan Cale eating fast food."

Logan turned his head slightly to see Alec standing there with his own cheeseburger and beer in hand, obviously planning on sitting at the same table as him. "If you're going to sit down, then you may as well do it."

Alec slid into the other side of the booth and plunged into his own meal. "You make it sound like you don't want company."

Logan shrugged at took another bite. "I only just managed to get rid of Minx, so I was kind of enjoying some alone time."

"That's her name? Sort of a coincidence, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

Alec sat back and took a quick drink of his beer. "It's just that... as soon as this chic shows up, Max gets kidnapped and the woman zeros in on you. Plus, she's way too much like Max."

"Max is her clone, isn't that the point?"

Alec shook his head. "We look the same as our clones, or originals as the case may be, but looks don't mean much. Do I seem much like Ben other than looks? I know you never met the guy, but come on, he was a serial killer doing his stuff because he believed in the Blue Lady. He was practically lost in this world, but he also didn't want to go back to Manticore, so he was basically screwed. Ok, if we throw my example aside and just talk about clones in general, it's common sense. If you've ever known twins, have they always been like each other?"

Logan nodded, seeing where Alec was headed with this. "Just because DNA is identical doesn't mean that their personalities are the same because who you are depends on how you grew up, not what's in your blood."

"So don't you see why it's kind of strange that Minx is so much like Max? Even the name is similar. Plus, there's something bugging me about her story. Now, don't take my word for this because I'm not entirely sure, but I was under the impression that the X5s were the first successful group of the X series, so why would they have cloned the older units? That just doesn't make any sense to me."

Logan could see where the X5 was coming from, that really didn't make much sense. "You don't think that she's a familiar, do you?"

Alec's cheeseburger froze halfway to his mouth. "I never thought of that. It would the smartest thing to do. She's probably working for the military, getting a good look at how things operate in here, while also passing on information to the cult. Think about it, it's a win/win situation for the familiars. They get all the info they need, but they let the military go in and get themselves slaughtered. They'll only go in if the military fails. How are we supposed to get her out of here?"

Logan glanced at the clock on the wall, then let a slightly triumphant smile make its way to his face. "Remember before everything happened with Max, when we were discussing how close I was to getting my Eyes Only operation up and running again?"

Alec nodded. "Yeah, I almost forgot about that. Why are you bringing this up now?"

Logan slid out of the booth and grabbed his jacket. "Are you up for a run to Sandeman's house?"

********************

A/N 2: As always, please leave me a little review. I was kinda depressed after my last update because ff.net was updating and deleted all the reviews from the day I updated, so I didn't get them all. Of all the days I could have picked to update, it had to be that day. :(


	6. Open Your Eyes

Author's Note 1: I'll make this brief because I'm sick of dragging this stuff into my story. **Snaps **and **Wintermint**, of course you can read Alec everywhere else, and you can read him right here too. And as for Logan's behavior, someone in the reviews answered your question. You can go look for it.

Since I'm sick and tired of people snapping at me about things, I'm going to stop answering anybody who doesn't leave a means of contact other than my own chapter. Leave me an email or a forum I can find you on before dissing the story, or don't expect an answer. If you don't have enough respect for other readers to let me contact you in a way other than making me reply in my next update, then don't expect an answer. I see nothing brave about shooting down a story anonymously.

Disclaimer: Well SuperBlonde, if you manage to get the genie, just don't use my wish! Please? :P

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 6: Open Your Eyes

Max's body was still convulsing wildly when she was dragged through the lab's doors. As White had ordered, every doctor on staff was waiting for their arrival. White watched as they moved Max into another room where they had more equipment. His blood was racing, and he was almost seeing red. He had come too far to lose his chance of finding his son again. Something in him was screaming that Ray was alive. Why would 452 bother to lead him in circles if he was dead? Then again, he wasn't about to question the way a transgenic's mind worked.

A few hours passed by with no new information. White was furious, they should have at least found something by now. When a doctor finally did come out, he was half tempted to throw something at him. For supposedly being the best in their field, they were incredibly slow. "What did you find?"

The doctor seemed rather unsure as he answered. "It doesn't appear to be the serotonin deficiency that has been known to run in the X5s. The only thing unusual we found was what appears to be a metal implant in the back of her neck that connects to the brain. We're not sure, but we think that it may be causing the seizures."

"Why aren't you sure?"

"Well, it seems that it's been in her for quite some time, and I would have thought that if it was to cause problems for her, it would have done so long before this."

"To hell with what you thought. Is there anything you can do?" he growled. How could his superiors not have found out about an implant in his target's head? They supposedly had all this information on the transgenics, so why wouldn't they have given him this information that could potentially have been useful to him?

"The implant appears to have been put out of commission. Dr. Mitchell is of the opinion, although I'm not sure that I agree, that we should reactivate it, then short-circuit it again shortly afterwards."

"Why don't you agree?"

The doctor, who now White could see by his rather tiny nametag was Dr. Hathel, glanced nervously in all directions then leaned in closer, as if telling some kind of secret. "Before I was hired here, I used to work for a group of people that were developing some kind of external means of extra strength. Basically, we wanted to do the opposite of Manticore. Rather than going directly inside the person and changing their DNA before birth, we wanted something that would make them just as powerful that could be given to them even as adults. The particular group that I was with didn't get very far, but there are some others that did. I may not be an expert in the field, but I believe that the implant in this X5's head might be some of that technology. If we reactivate it, she might be too strong for us to control."

White scowled and leaned away from the other man, who was starting to get too close for comfort as he told his story. "Why would an X5 be in need of extra strength? Besides, how would she have gotten her hands on it? I doubt she came across it in the street and just jammed it into her head. Would the people who created this implant have put it in her?"

Dr. Hathel shook his head. "From what I can see, the reason it was deactivated in the first place was because it was dangerous to her. A normal person might last a year with it in, but she wouldn't last any more than five hours. Then again, her body has become adjusted to its presence, so she might be able to last longer with it in action again. However, I still wouldn't give her more than three days to live if we turned it back on."

White frowned and let his fingers toy with his wallet for several seconds, then nodded. "Do it, we'll deal with the consequences later. After that, let the damn thing kill her. If I can get my questions answered, then she's expendable."

********************

Logan couldn't help but roll down the windows of the car that Alec had hotwired to take a deep breath of fresh air as he drove. Even though he had been making it alright in Terminal City, it was still a huge relief to not have its mild toxins affecting him. Perhaps even just having a few hours away from it would be sufficient to get rid of the headaches that had bothered him so much lately.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to make a broadcast? I mean, will you be able to do it without being traced?" Alec asked as Logan pulled onto Whitmore Street and headed for Sandeman's old house.

Logan shrugged. "I don't have all the equipment I used to have, but I have enough to ensure that as long as I make the broadcast short, I'll be fine." As he pulled over across the street of the old house and they climbed out, he finally voiced what had been bugging him. "Why are you doing all this?"

Alec look up as he opened the front door. "What do you mean? Doing all what?"

"I mean all this stuff you're doing to help me. I'm not saying that you've sat in my way all the time with your arms crossed, but you haven't come right out and tried to help me before without my asking. What's going on?"

Alec sighed and gestured around. "You see all of this? It's not extremely great, but people who walk through here are free. They don't have to worry about being lined up and killed, or thrown in a cage for the rest of their lives. I don't know about everyone else living in Terminal City, but I hate living there. We're trapped like animals in there, and I want out. But I don't want to have to go into hiding. I know I could do it easily enough, but I just don't think I should have to. That might just be Max rubbing off on me, or maybe Mole, but I don't want to have to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. And I don't want this all to take place in ten or twenty years, when I don't have as much time left to enjoy it, I want it to happen now. Seeing as how you're a respectable figure that many people count on to give reliable information, I think you just might be the only person that can make it happen."

Logan made his way to his computer and started turning everything on. "As much as I appreciate the faith, don't put too much stock in what I might or might not be able to do. Although I would love to be able to get all of you equality in the eyes of the public, that's not realistic. While you might be able to pull off citizenship, there are always going to be people looking for you and wanting you gone. Plus I don't think there will be any way for the psy-ops and X series to live like normal people because I'm sure you'll be required to leave your barcode on so it can be checked, and there will be hell to pay if you have it removed. You won't be able to just disappear into the crowd like you could before."

"I can live with that. I just don't want to have to stay in Terminal City, wondering if they're going to just say to hell with it and drop a bomb on the place. I..... hey, what's she doing here?"

Logan turned and looked out the window that Alec was gazing through. To his surprise, Minx was walking around outside, glancing in the windows of all the houses. She apparently was under the impression that they were in one of the houses across the street. "I guess the Familiars didn't tell her where Sandeman lived."

Alec shrugged and pulled the shades closed. "If she's on a mission, then she's on a need-to-know basis. Sandeman's old house wouldn't exactly be something they would expect her to have to know, would it? Should I get rid of her?"

Logan thought for a moment, peering through the tiny opening in the shades to stare out at her. "No, let me handle her. She's going to find us eventually, and I'd rather it not be in the middle of an Eyes Only hack. We shouldn't give her any reason to be suspicious." He turned and studied Alec for a moment, then pointed towards the computer. "How much do you know about computer equipment?"

"Enough to get around with."

Logan strode over to the computer and sat down, making adjustments on the audio and video for nearly five minutes. When he was done, he walked into the back bedroom and came back with an armful of clothes. "I doubt I'll be able to get her off my back so I can come back in, so you'll have to do my hack for me. Don't look at me like that, I have everything set up for you. All you have to do is click on this," he pointed to one of the several gray buttons that took over the left hand side of the screen, "get close to the microphone seeing as how it's not as clear as my old one, wait for the computer to tell you that it's broken into the satellite feed, and start talking. You've seen enough of my hacks to know how to start, and we've already discussed what the hack will be about. Make it under sixty seconds or you're going to get traced, especially without all the safeguards I used to have. The computer is set up to already have an image of me onscreen no matter who is running it. Your voice will be changed as well. Max has done it before, and it worked like a charm then. Hopefully Minx won't suspect either one of us. I'm sure you could convince someone to give you an alibi in case she starts digging around. Oh, and when you're done you just have to hit 'escape' to drop the connection. Just remember to shut everything down before you come back to Terminal City."

Alec nodded as Logan made his way outside. He didn't want to have to take the car and leave Alec without a means of transportation, but he knew the X5 could get back on his own easily enough. He'd probably just hotwire another vehicle. Minx looked up as he stepped out the door with both eyebrows raised.

"I wondered where you had gone, I saw you leaving Terminal City. Was someone in the car with you? I couldn't tell."

Logan shook his head. "I asked a couple people for help, but they're too worried about getting caught to come outside of Terminal City."

"What are you doing?"

"Well, there's not a lot of running water in Terminal City, so I came out and got some fresh clothes. They've been here for a while, but they're clean enough. I would have stayed out of the city, but I'm pretty involved with things that happen there." That wasn't really true, but he didn't want her to think twice about the old house behind him. In fact, he had been half thinking about just remaining in the house for a while.

She nodded, now staring over his shoulder at the house behind him. "Was that actually your house?"

Logan shrugged, wishing she'd not focus on it. "Not in the legal sense, but it was empty when I came so I took it over. It's not a bad setup."

Alec listened to the conversation through the open window. Why weren't they leaving? It wasn't for lack of trying on Logan's part, Minx was just extremely stubborn. He could tell she was dying to get inside the house just by the way she was talking. It was almost ten minutes before they actually left, by which time Alec had seated himself on the floor under the window while throwing odd objects at the dust bunnies in the corners of the room.

As soon as the coast was clear, he made his way to the computer system. _Damn, how am I going to say all this and still sound like Logan?_ He and Logan didn't exactly have the same speech styles, but if Max had pulled it off, he should be able to. After clicking on the screen, he leaned forward to get near the microphone. He could already see Logan's eyes between the two moving banners reading "Streaming Freedom Video" so he figured he was pretty much good to go. It wasn't until a tiny beep came from computer that he knew he was connected.

"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city. Not too long ago, an intruder made their way into Terminal City. This person entered only because everyone believed that she was an X4, more specifically, the X4 that the leader of the city was cloned after. Although the barcode seemed authentic, what these people didn't realize is that there were no clones made of the X4s. Despite the fact that there are X4s out there, the first truly successful group was the X5 division. While these people did not realize this, the population of Terminal City has. It would not be wise for this woman to remain there much longer. This is also a message to those that sent her there. If you insist on sending spies into the midst of the transgenics, you must understand that their patience will only last so long. Peace out."

Alec pressed the Escape key and sat back. _God, that sucked. There's no way they wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't the usual person._ He groaned and ran his hands back through his hair. He had let his personal feelings get involved and he had threatened the people who had sent in Minx. That wasn't something Eyes Only would have done. Oh well, he had made the hack under sixty seconds so there couldn't be a trace, so what was the worst that could happen?

********************

White's eyes never left the screen through the entire hack. _How the hell did that guy get his operation up and running again?_ Although it sounded a little strange, he couldn't think too hard on it right now. They wouldn't be able to continue the mission that way. Maria Jades had been an old school friend of his back when he had been at the cult's special school. She had owed him a few favors, so he had asked her to go into Terminal City and pretend to be an X4. He had even set her up with a barcode that would pass as a real one. Seeing as how she looked so much like Max, they had decided to send her in as Max's genetic predecessor. The idea had been that perhaps after he removed 452 from the city, more people would trust Maria simply out of the likeness between her and their leader. After all, they supposedly had the same genes. _Genes don't mean much, though,_ he thought sarcastically. Then she had to find out if any other transgenics knew of Ray's whereabouts. It appeared that the transgenics were aware of what was going on, but he doubted they knew the reason that Maria was there. 

Max had also heard the hack, but she still too focused on keeping the doctors guessing. _As long as they get this damn implant working again, I'll be just fine._ It had occurred to her back in her cell when she had been wishing for a little more strength that the implant was still in her head, and although it wasn't operational at the time, it was still intact. Why not trick the doctors into reactivating it? She had had enough seizures in her lifetime to know how to fake one reasonably well, and from the sounds of it, she was doing a pretty good job. She had even overheard them telling White the good news, that she would be able to survive longer this time when the implant was working.

When the doctors came in, she was jerking around as hard as ever. One of the doctors looked worried, then said, "Let's get this thing going again as soon as we can. I just hope she can hold on for another two hours."

Max tried hard to hide her smile as her body snapped around. _Oh, don't you worry Doc, I have all the time in the world._

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Author's Note 2: It's official, my muse is trying to make me mad. Every time I tell myself that I'm going to update faster, it leaves. Then again, maybe I should just take a different approach. I'M NOT GOING TO UPDATE FASTER! See, now my muse will find it safe to come back. Shhh, I don't want it hearing my plan. Well anyways, press the button say, er...um...uh, _type_ a couple words. I love you guys, negative reviews and all!


	7. Tough Choices

Author's Note: I actually had this chapter done about four days ago, but I've had some family problems so I haven't been home to put it up. It seems I actually found the solution to my muse problem: writing on my mom's laptop. It's just for work, so it's not like there's a lot of fun stuff on it, but it's kind of fun to be able to write in my room or in the living room, rather than in the computer room. Maybe my muse just doesn't like the setting.

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LttleL, which sentence was it? I probably did forget a word, I do that a lot. I've already noticed that I wrote "Alec look up" rather than "Alec looked up", so it looked like a five-year-old wrote that sentence. My biggest one is whenever I try to type "living room" I somehow manage to skip to word _room_. I swear my computer is deleting words on me. :P

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the FOX executives refused to sell me the rights to Dark Angel, so I still own nothing.

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 7: Tough Choices

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Does this woman ever give up? Logan thought irritably. Minx hadn't stopped questioning him about his little trip outside Terminal City since they had left Sandeman's house. _I suppose Familiars aren't in the habit of taking someone at their word._

"How long have you lived in that house?" she asked in a would-be-casual voice.

"Ever since Manticore was burned down. It's a quiet neighborhood where people don't ask too many questions."

"But I thought that there was a canine transgenic who kidnapped a blind girl from that neighborhood and killed her?"

Logan turned to look at her, barely paying attention to the road anymore. "He didn't kill her, they were friends and he was trying to get her out of the way of some street punks that wanted to beat him up. We already know who killed her."

"Who?"

Logan glanced forward and saw the gates of Terminal City in the distance. "We're here." Before she could continue her interrogation, he climbed out of the car and gathered his clothes together. 

She stayed irritatingly close behind him as they walked to the manhole cover that was closest to them. "You didn't answer my question, who killed the girl?"

Logan was hardly paying attention, as they climbed down he could hear something up ahead. It sounded like a lot of people were in one small area, and they didn't sound happy. _They must have seen Alec's hack._ He situated his clothes under one arm and started to climb up the ladder. "You know damn well who did it," he replied finally. Minx didn't have too much time to ponder what he had said; the moment her head popped out of the sewers, she was grabbed by practically a dozen pairs of hands. 

"What's going on?" she snapped as she was thrown against a chair and a few transgenics started tying her hands behind it.

Mole smiled in an almost friendly manner as he stepped in front of her. "I guess you thought you were a pretty clever girl for fooling us for these last few days. But how much did you actually know about how Manticore did its cloning? I'm guessing you didn't know very much."

Although she seemed to be fairly calm, there was a spark of something like fear in her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

That strange smile never left Mole's face as he turned and gestured for a group of X6s to come forward. They made their way to him, dragging a small TV with a built-in VCR. When Mole nodded, they pressed play. Immediately, Logan recognized his own eyes staring out of the screen at him through the Eyes Only banners. 

"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city. Not too long ago, an intruder made their way into Terminal City. This person entered only because everyone believed that she was an X4, more specifically, the X4 that the leader of the city was cloned after. Although the barcode seemed authentic, what these people didn't realize is that there were no clones made of the X4s. Despite the fact that there are X4s out there, the first truly successful group was the X5 division. While these people did not realize this, the population of Terminal City has. It would not be wise for this woman to remain there much longer. This is also a message to those that sent her there. If you insist on sending spies into the midst of the transgenics, you must understand that their patience will only last so long. Peace out."

Silence spread throughout the area as Minx took in what she had just seen. Logan was also processing it. Alec had gotten slightly carried away when he made his ending threat, that wasn't something Logan would have said. Still, the hack got its point across without leaving any room for doubt as to who Minx really was. It seemed that she was realizing this as well, because she didn't even try to protest as some transgenics lifted her chair and started taking her towards one of the old warehouses that filled the city. She was about to find out how transgenics responded to being tricked.

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The doctors had quite a job trying to reactivate the implant in Max's head. For one thing, it was a precise job that needed to be done perfectly, but Max had to keep up her seizures so that they would still feel the urgency to get the job finished quickly. But one of the things they hadn't expected was that the implant had migrated slightly. Not much, due to its connection to Max's brain, but it had shifted. Max heard one of the doctors theorize that her body was trying to get rid of the invasion, but the implant could only move so far without causing damage. _That must be why I had those seizures back when Logan and I went to Cape Haven,_ Max realized. According to what the doctors were saying, once her body realized that it couldn't throw the implant away, it stopped trying, and that's when the seizures stopped. The reason her pills and milk wouldn't work to stop the seizures was because the seizures had nothing to do with her serotonin deficiency, they were due to the stress on her brain as her body fought to get the implant out.

"How will we know when the implant is working again?" Dr. Hathel asked. Max was starting to wonder that herself, when suddenly she felt something wet on her face. It almost felt like she was crying, but it had a slightly different feel. Still, it wasn't until one of the doctors removed the knife they had been using to make a connection to the implant that she knew it was working again. Rather than feeling the slight, annoying stab of pain she usually did, there was just an odd tingly feeling. There was no pain whatsoever. She recognized this feeling, it was what she had felt whenever one of the Reds had punched her when she had first put the implant in. Slowly, she let her false seizures slow down to nothing, so that her body was relaxing against the table. It was strange though, she had been starting to feel worn out from her efforts earlier, but now it felt like she had been recharged. 

One of the doctors felt her pulse, then nodded to Dr. Hathel. "Go and tell Agent White that the seizures have stopped."

White was sitting in a rather stiff chair as he waited to hear what they had to tell him. When Dr. Hathel finally emerged from the other room, he was on his feet in an instant. "Have they stopped?" Dr. Hathel barely got the chance to nod before White asked, "Is she restrained?"

Dr. Mitchell, who had been standing near the door, stepped forward. "Why would she need to be restrained?"

White didn't even bother to answer him, he just forced his way into their temporary operating room and headed for Max. If she was going to be several times stronger than she already was, she couldn't be left loose like this.

Max waited until White was leaning over her, starting to strap her arms down, then reached out, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and flung him as hard as she could to her left. She didn't even wait to hear him land, she simply leapt off the table and ran for the door. A doctor she didn't recognize stepped in her way, but it was a fatal mistake. She rammed her elbow into the side of his face, but to her honest surprise, the blow was strong enough to break his neck. 

Gunshots were being fired behind her, but the fact that three of them hit her didn't even slow her down. She just felt that strange tingling. Out the door, down a flight of stairs, and through a window at the end of the hallway, yet she still felt no pain. The tiny cuts and scratches felt only like her body was asleep and someone was tapping it in various places. It wasn't as though she didn't notice when her body should have been feeling pain, it was just that she didn't feel the pain itself. It wasn't numbness, it was more like being beyond any kind of full physical feeling. In all honesty, she hated it. It made her feel even less human than she already was. _Now I suppose I would agree if someone called me a freak._

Finally, she had to slow down. She didn't have a clue where she was, the buildings that were flashing past were all beginning to look the same to her. Something told her that she was still in Seattle, but there was nothing to indicate exactly where in Seattle she was. After maybe an hour of walking around aimlessly, still feeling slightly thrown by the changes in her body, she thought she saw something familiar. There was a bike up ahead, and it looked like one she had seen before. _Snap out of it, I'm sure there's plenty of bikes that look like that. I probably saw one just like it at JamPony._ That's when a smile broke out on her face. Maybe the bike _was_ from someone who worked at JamPony.

Max hurried over to it and started checking it out. _This is Sky's bike, _she realized after a moment. A burst of relief rushed through her. She could just follow Sky back to JamPony. Normal had had an epiphany about the transgenics, maybe he would help her out. At the very least, she might be able to hide out in JamPony until she figured out something better to do.

********************

Logan couldn't help but cringe slightly when he saw Minx a few hours later, tied up in the basement of one of Terminal City's many warehouses. Some of the transgenics had taken out their anger by beating her, and she looked much worse for the wear. The fact that Familiars didn't bruise easily was another indication of how angry everyone was. Not that he blamed them, but they didn't know what Minx's purpose here was. That was why he had come here. Seeing as how Max was their main focus when it came to transgenics, and he was sure they would know that White had her, then why did they send someone else in? There were only two things he could think of: the Familiars either didn't know that White was coming in to get Max, or they didn't know that Minx was here.

Minx raised her head slightly as Logan approached. To his surprise, she offered a weary smile. "I don't seem to be able to shake you."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that you've got that backwards. I do believe that this is the first time that I've sought you out, every other time it's been you that's found me."

She sat back, apparently trying to make herself comfortable despite the tightness of the ropes. "Well, you must have had a reason to come see me. Let me guess, you want to know exactly what I'm doing here?"

"Yeah, that's the gist of it. Seeing as how Max, or perhaps you're more comfortable with '452', is no longer in Terminal City, then what was your purpose here? I would think that if it was your job to get your hands on her, you would have left, seeing as how she's already in the hands of your people."

She smirked at him, studying his face carefully. "You're in love with her. I guess I didn't notice it before because I've never gotten the chance to see the two of you together, but you're head over heels for her."

Logan felt shocked at first, but then tried to recover his composure. "What makes you say that?"

"Don't try and fool me, it's written all over your face. I have to admit you're a pretty good actor, but it's killing you that she's not here. Then on top of that, seeing as how you seem to know exactly who I am, you know just what the stakes are with her. It wouldn't surprise me if she's dead already."

His jaw gripped painfully, and his stomach lurched. "Don't say that," he hissed dangerously. 

Her eyes danced playfully. "Ooh, it seems I've hit a nerve. Have you been trying to block it from your mind? Trying not to imagine just what White will, or probably already did, do to her? She has evaded him for months, made him look like a fool on several occasions, and took his son. He's not going to be gentle when the time comes for him to kill her. It wouldn't surprise me if he decides to take it nice and slow. That's always been his nature."

Logan desperately needed to get the thought of what White could, and assuredly would, do to Max out of his head, so he grasped onto the only piece of information that Minx had given him that didn't hurt like hell. "That's always been his nature? How well do you know him?"

"We knew each other in the Academy of our people, he's something of an old friend. That's how I know he won't hesitate to tear 452 apart."

He took a deep breath, this was only wasting time and hurting him. All he wanted was to get what he came for, then get out of here and never see her again. "You still haven't answered my first question. Seeing as how your people have Max, why are you still here?"

Minx laughed rather condescendingly. "You silly, pathetic little man, I'm not here for 452. The Conclave has no idea that Ames has her, and they have no idea I'm here. None of this is about the danger she means for my people. It's personal."

"I can see how it's personal for White, but what about you? You have no connection to the transgenics other than your physical likeness to Max, so why are you involving yourself in this?"

"Like I said, I'm an old school friend of Ames's. I guess you could say that I was something of a troublemaker back at the Academy, and he always managed to get me back out of trouble. I owe him big time for some of that stuff, and he's calling me on it now. You don't honestly believe that he thinks 452 is the only person who knows his son's condition and location, do you? He knew perfectly well that someone else had to know every bit as much, if not more about his son than she did. That's what my job was. While he tried to get the information out of her, I'd work on finding out everything I could here. Once we had what he needed, he'd kill 452 and I'd get out of this God forsaken place. It's nothing personal, but I had a debt I needed to repay."

"Well, you know what? I am taking personally. You lied to everyone here, including me. Then there's the fact that if you had succeeded, Max would be killed."

Minx chuckled. "How do you know she's not already dead?"

"I don't, but that doesn't mean I have to stop hoping. In fact, that makes me think of something else I want you to answer for me. Where did White take her? I'm sure you know, you had to keep in contact with him somehow."

"Oh please, do you think he'd tell me? I contact him via his cell phone, and it's not like I need to know his location for that. Seeing as how he has his agency position, I'm sure he has hiding places all over the city. If he wants to stay hidden, you won't be able to find him."

"Don't be so sure about that." Logan couldn't take looking at her smug face anymore. She knew the subject was getting to him, and she was exploiting it as much as she could. He finally turned and walked out. At least he had gotten something positive from Minx. Max wasn't dead. White wouldn't kill her until he knew for sure where Ray was, and she would never tell him. Then there was the fact that he'd been with Minx practically the entire time she was here, and was sure that she hadn't found out anything important, so that meant that White definitely didn't know anything. Add it all up, and there wasn't much doubt that Max was still alive somewhere. At least that was some relief.

********************

"Holy shit Max, what's up with your eyes?" This happened to be the first thing that Sky said when he came out of the old building. Max's hand shot up to her eyes, and it wasn't until she saw the blood on her fingers that she remembered she had been bleeding from the eyes.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it cleaned up the first chance I get. Do you mind if I follow you back to JamPony? I'm completely screwed up right now."

He nodded, obviously having a hard time looking her in the eyes. "I'll take it slow so you can keep up." When she opened her mouth to protest, he held up a hand to quiet her. "C'mon, I know you're a transgenic and all and you have this super-speed deal going on, but you don't need people seeing that. It's bad enough that you have blood all over your face."

She sighed and nodded in resignation. He was right, how could she not have thought of that? Then again, she had just gone through a lot and was still worried about White finding her again. It was amazing that she was still thinking clearly at all.

It wasn't until she walked into JamPony that she started to feel any better about her situation. It was nice to be here again, this was where she got to pretend she was normal. Of course, now everybody here knew differently. Still, she received some hugs from some of the workers. It wasn't the same though, her friends weren't even here. Sketchy and Original Cindy were still back in Terminal City and none of the transgenics worked here anymore. Also, only half the amount of workers that this place had had from before the incident with the Phalanxes worked here. Ever since Normal had announced on TV that he didn't think transgenics were monsters anymore, the government was requiring a blood test in order for people to work here. Unfortunately, since this information had been given out on every news program in the area, not many people wanted to fill the old positions. It was just too much hassle.

As she reached the counter where Normal was "bip-bip-bipping" every person who passed, he reached out, grabbed her by the shoulders, dragged her over the counter, and shoved her into a sitting position on the floor. "Are you nuts?" he whispered angrily. "There's feds all over the place watching every move my employees and I make, and you just come strolling in? A known transgenic leader, and with blood all over your face no less! You'll get me arrested!"

Max grabbed the box of tissues that Normal regularly kept behind the counter for himself and started wiping the blood off her face. Half of it was dried already, she would need to go into the bathroom to get it all off. "Look, I know I'm not one of your favorite people, even before you knew what I was, but I'm kinda in a jam. I need help."

"You didn't even have to say that, it's not like it's too hard to figure out. You must be desperate if you're coming here for help though."

She shrugged. "Everyone else is in Terminal City, I didn't have anyplace else to go."

"Then why didn't you go there? I'm sure they would be much more capable of protecting you than me."

Max sighed and started licking her fingers so she could wipe her face better. "I'm not asking you to protect me. All I need is a place to hide out. If the feds come, I promise I'll make sure you're not in any trouble."

He threw another package at one of the passing employees, then turned to look down at her. "I think maybe you didn't hear me the first time I asked. Why don't you just go to Terminal City?"

She hesitated, but then decided that she may as well tell him. That would at least leave someone who could tell the residents of Terminal City that she was safe. "I'm not sure I'll ever go back there."

"Why not? Aren't you their leader?"

"Not really, I don't have much to do with the way things are run over there. It's just the fact that those cult people want me, so they see me as an important figure in the city. I'm dragging too much danger in there. I thought about leaving a long time ago, but I ended up sticking around because someone convinced me it was cowardice. But now it's not about that, I just don't want White's men going into Terminal City and killing a bunch of innocent people just so they can get their hands on me. It'll be better for everyone if I'm far away."

Normal glanced down at her again. "That sounds like it's a little more personal that anything else."

He had a point. Maybe she didn't want to leave just because of how dangerous she was making things for everyone, perhaps it had more to do with how dangerous she was making things for Logan. Even though he thought she was with Alec, that didn't mean he was safe. It was obvious he still cared for her, so what was to stop him from getting infected again? She couldn't let that happen. Maybe things would be easier this way. "Are you going to give me a place to stay or not?"

He groaned and tipped his head towards the stairs. "You can stay up there. Make yourself comfortable if you plan on staying for a while."

She shook her head as she climbed to her feet, ducking behind a pile of packages just in case any feds were watching. "Don't worry, I won't be sticking around long. I'll be out of your hair before you know it."

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Author's Note 2: Just leave me a little review! Nothing special, it's just nice to see people care. Now, I've noticed that on the main page of fanfiction.net, they're saying that there's going to be a server upgrade in two weeks. Since this always seems to put the site out of commission for horribly long periods of time, I'll most likely finish the next chapter while the site is out. I'll try to hurry it up so it'll be done in time, but in case it's not, the next chapter can be found at The Broken World in the first M/L section. The link is in my bio, for some reason I couldn't get it to show up in the chapter.


	8. Start The Clock

Author's Note: How about that? I finally update in under a week (barely) and ff.net isn't even up! Well, that laptop idea is working beautifully, for some reason the change of scenery does wonders for my muse.

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Munchi: Thank you, I can't believe I missed that. I guess I forgot that it was Alec who knew about Logan finding out, not Max. I changed it now. See, this is why I love reviewers: they give honest opinions and tell you when you've messed up! :P 

Disclaimer: My psychiatrist tells me that my life's goal of owning DA is unrealistic, but what does he know?

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 8: Start The Clock

With the fuming rage that his boss was in, Otto was very smartly keeping his mouth shut. He simply leaned back into the wall as he watched White pace through the hallways, occasionally getting into a fight with someone on his cell phone as he kicked anything in his path out of the way. Everyone in the building seemed to freeze as he went past, as if hoping that he wouldn't see them if they didn't move. 

"God dammit!" White yelled as he sent his fist straight through a window as he was passing by. "She's a known fugitive and there's blood running down her face! There's no fucking way that she could have just disappeared! You!" Otto cringed as White whirled to face him. "Aren't you supposed to be working for me?" At Otto's nervous nod, White almost smiled. "Then why don't you see if you can find anything out! Do you even have a theory?"

"Well, she might have some friends outside of the transgenics that she could turn to for help. Perhaps she's staying with one of them until things cool down." Knowing that had been a rather obvious thing to say, he tried to come up with a little more as he saw White's temper start to flare up again. "Have you checked her old workplace, that bike messenger place? She must have some good friends from work that would help her out, maybe she went there." He felt an immense rush of relief as White stepped back, apparently thinking over what he had said.

"That would make sense, especially seeing as how we don't have any other ideas right now. Call for backup, I'm heading there now."

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He had been out of Terminal City for nearly twenty-four hours now, but once again Alec found himself ducking behind a corner to avoid a group of transgenic-haters. It seemed that the guys he and Joshua had beaten up for killing Biggs had given the police a description of him. While they had done what he'd told them to and gotten out of town, every transgenic hunter in Seattle knew what he looked like. He'd already received a few glances from strangers on the street, so he had taken to moving around only when the area was fairly empty. It was starting to become exhaustive. 

__

I'm never going to make it back to Terminal City today at the rate I'm going. I'll need to find someplace to hide out. Unfortunately, there was only one place he could think of that he wouldn't be found: JamPony. Normal would do practically anything for him, although asking him to hide a transgenic fugitive for a while might be a rather high request. Most people wouldn't do it if they knew what was good for them. 

It still took over an hour to reach JamPony, especially since he had to sneak past the sector police. The emptiness was what struck him first, but he couldn't say he was surprised. The reputation of this place had gone downhill quickly because of its history with transgenics. Who in their right minds would want to work here?

"Are my eyes deceiving me?" Normal's face had lit up the moment his eyes had landed on Alec.

"Nope," he said with a rather forced smile. _Unfortunately_, he thought miserably. Well, beggars couldn't be choosers.

"What brings you through here? Not that I'm not glad you're here, but I thought you were holed up in Terminal City?"

"I was, and I'm headed back there, but I think I'm gonna need a place to stay for a little while," Alec said tentatively. It wasn't that he was afraid Normal wouldn't help him out, it was just that he might do it a little too enthusiastically.

"Look, let's talk about this in my office. I have feds swarming all over the place around here. I was a little rougher with Max when she came in, but I wasn't about to attempt to manhandle you."

The mental images that could have been conjured by what Normal had said were lost on Alec when he heard Max's name. "Max came here? When?"

"Around noon yesterday, and she wasn't looking too good. She had blood coming from her eyes, plus it didn't look like she'd been taking care of herself too well."

__

Blood coming from her eyes? That didn't sound too good. What could have made that happen? "Where is she right now?"

"Upstairs where…" Normal didn't get the chance to finish before Alec had taken off up the stairs.

Max had been flopped out on her back on the floor trying to keep her overcharged body relaxed, when Alec came flying up out of the stairway. She sat bolt upright, frowning as her forehead banged against the table next to her and sent it smashing into the wall. That would leave a mark. "Alec, what are you doing here? Normal didn't start making calls after I got here, did he?"

"No, I just kind of turned up without warning. When were you planning on coming back? Everybody's going nuts, things have been going to hell without you."

Max didn't quite want to announce her decision to leave town just yet. "What's going on?"

"Didn't you see the hack?"

Now he had her attention. She vaguely remembered hearing something that sounded like a hack while the doctors were reactivating the implant, but she didn't really hear the details. "Logan made another Eyes Only hack? How did he get everything set up again?"

"Well, technically _I_ made the hack, but everything was already set up at Sandeman's house. You must not have seen the hack then. I guess it's a good thing you're sitting down."

Max could see this was something important. "What's going on? What was so big that Logan not only needed to make an Eyes Only hack, but couldn't do it himself?"

"Do you remember the group of newcomers that we got just before White took you? Well, the one who said she was X4-452 was actually a Familiar. I don't know what she was doing in Terminal City, but she latched onto Logan right away after you left. We were at Sandeman's house when she showed up, so he went out to head her off and had me do the hack for him. I don't know what happened after that though because he took our ride back to Terminal City with her, so I had to get back on my own. That's why I'm here. Now spill it, why didn't you let us know you were alright? I would have thought the first thing you'd do would be to come back and let everyone know that you weren't in danger."

So much for holding off telling him. "I guess I didn't really plan on going back there. I'm too dangerous to have there. As long as I'm far away from here, the cult shouldn't be too focused on the rest of you. After all, I'm supposed to be some sort of weapon against this Coming thing."

Alec couldn't help it, the stress of the journey to JamPony had worn him thin and he wasn't in the best mood anymore. "Quit the bullshit Max, this has nothing to do with how worried you are about everybody. I know you see yourself as this high and mighty savior for our kind, but this noble thing is only a cover. That might be at the back of your mind, but you're just doing the same thing you tried last time, you're running away. Things are getting too tough so you're just going to run and hide. And don't fool yourself into thinking that you're doing it all for 'our people' as you like to put it, you're doing it because things have just become too uncomfortable with Logan!"

Now Max climbed to her feet. "Since when is it your place to tell me why I make the decisions I do? You don't have a clue what goes on in my head, but I can assure you that Logan is not the reason I'm leaving! Besides, he thinks I'm with you!"

"Not anymore. How stupid do you think that man is? All he has to do is listen to us together a little bit and he knows that us being together right now is ridiculous. In fact, that's what he did. Even though he's doing a pretty good job of hiding it, it's driving him nuts that he doesn't know where you are. If you're going to wimp out, at least let him know you're doing it!"

"You know what? You can tell him. I'm not putting him in any more danger than he already is, especially now that we know there's a Familiar in Terminal City. 

"He's a big boy, I'm sure he's not going to mind the danger. You know what I think? For this big tough show you always put on, I think you're nothing but a coward. You can't handle too much when it comes to feelings, so you act like you don't care and get as far away from the problem as you can. Well I'm not buying it, and I know that nobody else does either. The only person you're fooling is yourself. Do you really think you're going to be happy once you're away from here? No, you're going to be miserable and wish you could come back, but you'll talk yourself out of it and spend all of your time lying to yourself by saying you don't need anybody here and they don't need you. Newsflash, you need us all more than you think."

Max's hands had balled themselves into tight fists. "I'm surprised that doesn't sound familiar to you, Alec. Isn't that what you do all the time? But you know what, I've always had enough respect for your privacy to let you handle it on your own! I've never told you what I thought you were doing wrong, why can't you do the same for me?"

"Because we're living in very different conditions now. When one thing goes wrong in Terminal City, it starts a chain reaction. Everybody's life there practically depends on the lives of everyone around them. When one person is miserable, it spreads, and the fact is that what you're about to do is going to make life there extremely depressing for a long time. You're important to everyone there, Max, and knowing that you wanted to leave is going to send everyone right over the edge. Listen, if you're this set on going away, at least come back to Terminal City for a while and let everyone know in person what your plans are. You owe that much to them."

Max leaned down and picked up the hooded jacket that Normal had lent to her. "I'll think about it, but I think I need to be alone right now. Seeing as how you aren't going to go away, I'll leave first."

She stormed down the stairs, now regretting that she hadn't just punched him. The look on his face would have been worth it. Who did he think he was? Then there was the fact that Logan knew she had been lying to him for the last few weeks. She especially didn't want to face him now. As long as they were both available, there was always that sense of hope. If there was going to be hope for them, then why couldn't the virus be gone? 

Max knew she was getting stares as she made her way towards the door, pulling up the hood of her jacket the whole way. Before Normal could say anything, she was past him and out into the rare bright sunlight. She had hardly gone ten steps when a horribly familiar black car came squealing around the corner. She was frozen momentarily, but then turned and took off running. There was nowhere to hide now; the chase was on.

********************

Logan couldn't help but wander aimlessly through the Rec Center. Even without Max here, it was business as usual. There had been a couple new people brought in earlier that morning, psy-ops were being sent out to bring in supplies since they could usually convince people to unknowingly give up food and other necessities, and X series were being sent on scouting missions to see where the soldiers were positioned at different points in time. It was like they hadn't missed a beat.

At the sight of an X8 scurrying away from the far corner of the room, Logan made his way toward Mole, which happened to be the exact direction the kid had been coming from. _Am I really surprised?_

"What do you want?" Mole asked without even bothering to look up. At the moment, he was staring at one of the guns that a psy-ops had brought in. "Damn thing's hardly operable," he grumbled under his breath.

"Where's Joshua? I've been looking for him." Logan had been so out of it lately that he hadn't even thought about the tall transgenic. Now he felt guilty, because he was sure that Joshua was suffering from Max's disappearance just as much, if not more, than anyone else. He may have been annoyed by Max thinking that she had to take care of him all the time, but he still had some dependence on her. It was more emotional that anything else though.

"He's stuck watching that ordinary girl, she's been having some bad headaches lately."

"Thanks," Logan muttered, wandering away while deep in thought. He had been thinking about getting out of the city, but he had completely forgotten about the other two regular people here in Terminal City. They were having the same annoying symptoms that he was, they probably wanted to get out of here just as much as he did. Sketchy might want to stay to make another attempt at getting an interview out of someone, but even he had to be thinking about getting away from everything here. Many of the residents were becoming increasingly depressed, they had gotten out of one prison just to be trapped someplace else, this time with people trying to kill them. This just wasn't a cheery place to live right now.

"Hey Logan," Joshua said with a weary smile when he answered the door.

Logan glanced behind him to where Original Cindy was laying on a dusty old sofa. "Is it bad?"

Joshua shrugged. "She says it hurts, but big fella can't help. Air here is bad."

"Yeah, it isn't exactly making me feel great either. Do you think she'd mind if I came in?"

Original Cindy pushed herself up onto her elbows, giving him an annoyed look through the bags under her eyes. "Why don't you ask the boo yourself, instead of drillin' doggy-dog? Ya may as well come in, it's not like I'm gonna be chasin' you out of these digs on my own steam."

Logan forced a smile and came in to sit by her feet on the couch. "Is the headache worse than usual?"

"Feels like someone done smacked me upside the head with a sledgehammer. They weren't this bad when we first came here, but it keeps gettin' worse. I just wanna get back to my crib."

"I'm working on that. My headaches aren't as bad since I got some real fresh air yesterday, but I know they're going to get worse. As much as I want to help everyone here, I'm not sure that I'll be much help right here on location. I might be better off helping from a distance."

A flash of understanding went through Original Cindy's eyes, but she didn't say anything. Joshua lowered himself into the chair he had obviously been using before, seeing as how it had one of Sandeman's old books on the arm of it. "Do they know anything about Max?"

"No more than they did before. Minx doesn't know where White is, and I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. That just sounds like how he runs his operation, so as few people as possible are going to know where he is and what he's doing."

Original Cindy's voice took on an unusually harsh tone. "And just what was that bitch doin' here in the first place?"

Logan leaned against the back of the couch. "As I understand it, White would try and get his son's location out of Max while she tried to get anything she could from people here. It seems she was repaying a debt to him, so the cult knew nothing about this."

There seemed to be a low growl in the back of Joshua's throat, but nobody commented on it. Actually, there wasn't any time to. As they sat quietly for a moment, an odd thudding noise came from the hall. Joshua had just moved to check it out when the door opened and Gem came in, half-dragging Sketchy along with her. His eyes were unfocused, gazing distractedly into space as he winced from all of the jolts Gem was giving him as she helped him along.

She finally just deposited him on the floor, wiping a few strands of hair out of her eyes. "He was drinking with some of his X5 buddies when one of those headaches came on. When it finally got bad enough for him to complain about, the others just ignored him. Then Chase got sick of his muttering about it under his breath and just whacked him in the back of the head, saying it couldn't have hurt that bad. He must have had a pretty bad migraine because it pretty much knocked him senseless. I can't get him to talk normally."

Joshua leaned down and lifted Sketchy up to place him the chair he had just vacated. "Good thing you were there."

She sighed and plopped down onto the floor. "He got lucky, I had just made it there when it happened. It's too bad though, I had been really looking forward to relaxing. Mole won't get off our backs, every five minutes he wants someone to go out and see the positions of the ordinary soldiers. Everyone got so pissed at him that I had to make the entire round to see where the soldiers were myself! Talk about exhausting."

Logan's attitude changed from politely interested to hanging on every word in an instant. "Do you mean that you know where all the soldiers are right now?"

"Unless they moved drastically in the last five minutes, then yeah. Why?"

"We were just talking about getting out of here before you walked in. Would you say there are any weak spots in their guard?"

Gem was silent for a moment, seemingly uncomfortable with everyone's eyes upon her; even Sketchy's, unfocused though they were. "Well, you could always go out through the sewers out on the east side, the ones that bring you up in the old industrial center outside of Terminal City. Of course, there's not many of you, it shouldn't be too difficult to get past them anywhere. I would just take the way that the new groups generally take. I happen to know for a fact that you left that way yesterday." At Logan's questioning look, she said, "We have our own guards in places you might not expect, and they saw you and Alec leaving, as well as you and Minx coming back. That's as good a path as any, even if you're all ordinaries. No offense," she added after a short pause.

Since Sketchy was hardly in any condition to give an opinion, Logan turned to look down at Original Cindy. "So, what do you think?"

She stared steadily back at him. "I think that I want outta this joint, and I want out yesterday."

********************

Alec was still grumbling over how stubborn Max was being when Normal came flying up the stairs. "I didn't see it happen, but one of the messengers just came in and said she saw Max running from a black car. What's going on?"

Normal never got his answer, Alec was out the door too quickly.

********************

Max rounded yet another corner at top speed, trying to cut through alleys that the car couldn't fit through. It didn't seem to work though, it just popped up somewhere else every time she thought she was safe. As the car squealed into the alley right behind her, she grabbed a dumpster and sent it flying into the way. That only slowed White down for a moment, car insurance was the farthest thing from his mind. He didn't care how smashed up his vehicle was, he could always get another one. The important thing was getting to 452 and stopping her from escaping before he found out where his son was.

Although she couldn't feel pain, Max was aware that her body was wearing out much faster than it should have been with the implant. _I'm overstressing myself too much, I won't last as long with the implant at the rate I'm going. _She could already feel a slight shudder run through her body whenever she slowed down. Eventually the seizures were going to come back, and she would have to find a way to shake White for good or end up being captured again. She hadn't risked her health just to have that happen. 

A few more turns and a few more shudders made the severity of the situation much more obvious to her. Her body was falling apart quickly, she was going to have to stop this now. She slowed her speed ever so slightly, then as soon as the car was near enough behind her she threw herself up into a high back flip, spinning in the air so that she landed on the hood of the car facing White. She only saw his stunned face through the windshield for a moment, then she slammed her fist through the windshield, grabbed him by the throat, pulled him out through the glass, and threw him as hard as she could into the wall of the nearest building. 

"Still feeling no pain?" she said with a laugh, feeling her stress turn into a strange form of hysteria with startling speed. "If not, I can change that."

White barely had time to roll out of the way before Max's heel dug into the pavement where his head had just been. _The freak has gone nuts,_ he realized with a sort of numb shock. She had started bleeding from the eyes again, making her look more intimidating than he'd ever found her.

That odd laugh escaped her again. "Think you can take me?"

He moved to his feet, feeling his entire body tense in preparation for the inevitable fight. "That shouldn't even be a question, it should just be common knowledge."

"You're about to find out how untrue that is."

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Author's Note: Yup, I'm gonna say it. Just leave me a little review! And I'm going to have to ask that it be an actual review of my story, not a negative rant about something that I like that has nothing to do with the story. To the person who did this, (I'm sure they know who they are) there is a lovely little response to you in the review area from someone who at least had the decency to apologize to me beforehand for what they were about to do.


	9. Showdown

Author's Note 1: I am so sorry about how long this took, but I've been having a lot of family issues lately and I haven't even been near the computer. I'll just say that after everything that's been going on here, it sure was a relief to write this chapter and get lost in it for a little while.

Disclaimer: It appears that DA is expensive, so I turned down their offer to let me buy it. :P

****

Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring 

****

Chapter 9: Showdown

No matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, the sight of the figure bleeding from the eyes, breathing heavily, and poised for a fight before him gave White the chills. This was going to be very different from their past encounters. 

"Speechless? That's not like you," she taunted as she circled around him. The shudders were becoming more frequent, she had to get this over with quickly or she wouldn't finish at all.

White ended up making the first move, he was getting sick of the mocking. Everything in her movements indicated that she believed she was going to win and he wasn't so sure she was wrong. Unlimited strength was one hell of an advantage. Still, he kicked out to catch her behind the knee. His only chance was to get her off her feet.

Max saw it coming before he was even halfway to her. As his foot hooked behind her leg, she moved with the pressure he gave and moved deftly into a high back flip, kicking him in the chin as she went. Once she was back on her feet, she caught him behind the leg and sent him to the ground in a similar fashion to what he had planning to do to her. She smirked as he just barely managed to avoid his head bouncing on the pavement. "Not as easy as you thought, huh?"

He remained on the ground for a few seconds, not making an attempt to get up. As soon as she made a slight movement that indicated she had momentarily relaxed, he swung up a leg and hit her in the ribs from the side. It only knocked her off balance for a moment, but it was enough to give him the time to get back on his feet and prepare himself again. He ducked as she attempted to punch him, then drove his fist into her gut. Although she didn't feel it like she should have, her body still naturally doubled over and he slammed his elbow into her back. 

Max's hands hit the ground and just barely managed to prevent her face from doing so as well. When she looked forward, she did the only thing that seemed to come to mind: reached out, grabbed his ankle, and twisted hard. The resounding _crack_ seemed to ring through the otherwise silent alley. 

White's face paled for a moment, then he sent his knee into her face. As he backed up to give himself more room, he realized that although he couldn't feel the pain the same way as everyone else, his body was still refusing to put much weight on that ankle. He threw himself sideways as she went to tackle him, grunting as his collision with the wall of the nearest building knocked the breath out of him. During the time that he was startled however, he didn't notice the look of confusion on Max's face.

__

The shudders are throwing off my sense of balance! she realized suddenly. Even though he had moved to avoid her, she still should have been able to easily send White to the ground, but somehow she had passed right on by. When she turned to see where he was, she realized to her surprise that her view of him was blurred. She couldn't seem to focus in on him, but he wasn't even moving much. That seemed to bring her crashing back to reality; the craze to fight that had filled her before was slowly draining. The implant's effects were getting worse every second. If she didn't end this now and get the implant deactivated, she might not make it.

White took the only chance he could. Max had turned away for a moment, and he threw himself forward. They both went crashing to the ground, and now all fighting tactics went out the door. They were rolling on the ground, throwing punches like a pair of five-year-olds. The only real difference was that their punches were a hell of a lot more powerful, particularly Max's, but nobody watching them fight would have been able to tell that it was a transgenic and a superhuman cult member. 

As they completely rolled over again, Max felt something in the side of White's suit jacket. _He has a knife,_ she thought with relief. She shoved off with her leg so that they went into another complete roll and reached into his jacket to grab the knife. From how it felt in her hand, it had to have been at least a six-inch blade. He rolled so she was under him and raised a fist to hit her, which was when she jammed the knife into his right side. His eyes widened slightly, but he still hit her. She remained motionless afterwards, so he got off to see what kind of damage had been done. She kept her eyes on him at all times, making sure she didn't move other than her frequent shaking. His breathing was becoming raspy, and she gave a sigh of relief. She had punctured one of his lungs. 

__

Crazy bitch, White thought spitefully. This fight couldn't continue much longer, he needed medical treatment. Reaching over with his left hand, he removed the knife from his side and threw it at her. Her eyebrows lowered as she reached out to catch it, but her focus was completely off. The blade went straight through her hand. She lifted up the hand to study it.

"You know, seeing as how I can't feel it, this actually looks pretty cool. This could be kind of interesting." Pushing herself to her feet, Max walked straight up to White and slapped him. He pulled back sharply, reaching up to feel the two extra openings in the sides of his face. They felt like normal cuts until his finger actually slipped through them and into his mouth. He turned his head to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood, then glared at Max.

"Not bad, but it ends here." The whole time they had been fighting, they had been slowly but steadily making their way back towards the car. He winced slightly as he kept putting his weight down on his broken ankle, but he felt even more hints of pain when he put his arm through the passenger side window and opened the glove compartment to pull out one of his guns. He remembered once when Max had threatened to see how high his pain threshold was, now he had the feeling he was getting to it. Still, he kept his face perfectly blank as he raised the gun and pointed it at her.

"You really think that you'll stop me that way? You've tried to shoot me so many times that I've started to wonder if you skipped target practice when you were learning to become an agent." Just as she saw his finger start to tighten on the trigger, she shot forward and kicked it out of his hand and caught it. "Nice try," she growled as she held up the gun. She didn't ever want to have to use one of these, but circumstances had changed a lot since she had made that resolution in her youth. Now the world couldn't afford to have her die, and the implant was starting to make her less capable of killing him with her bare hands. _It'll only be a last resort. He's too set on finding his son to die, hopefully just the threat of being shot will be enough._ Normally, she would have killed him and freed herself from the threat of it being the other way around, but the shudders were starting to really become powerful. It was all she could do to keep them from being obvious.

"Well, are you going to fire or not? I don't see the point in putting it off," he said tonelessly. It honestly surprised him what she did next.

"Get in the car. We're going to the hospital."

He hesitated, then carefully made his way over to the other side of the car and climbed in. "How do you know that I won't just crash this car and get rid of my problem once and for all?"

"You still want to know everything you can about your son, and I'm the only person who can give it to you. There's no way you'll get rid of me. Now drive."

********************

Alec was practically gasping for breath when he reached Terminal City. He had looked in the general area around JamPony for nearly an hour, but finally decided to get back to the transgenics and find help when he couldn't find any sign of Max. The trail was much fresher, they would have a better chance of finding her. Tracking wasn't his specialty. This was something that was much better left up to Mole's crew.

He had just pulled himself out of the sewers when he ran straight into Joshua, who had one arm hooked around Sketchy's waist to help hold him up. He was doing a more than effective job, Sketchy's toes were barely skimming the ground. "What's wrong?" Joshua asked, shoving Sketchy's head out of the way so he could see Alec more clearly.

"Max," he choked out, still struggling to catch his breath. 

Logan stepped out from behind Joshua, nearly forgetting to keep his arm around Original Cindy. "What about Max? Have you seen her? Where is she?"

Alec sucked in a deep breath and sat down on an old crate nearby. "She was at JamPony, I saw her when I was coming back from Sandeman's house. For some reason she had been bleeding from the eyes, and she was planning on skipping town. She figured it would be safer if she was far away, then the cult wouldn't focus on everyone here. Frankly, I think that's bullshit, but she didn't take it too well when I told her that. After she went storming out, one of the messengers said a black car was chasing her. I think we all know who would be in there."

Logan was processing everything as quickly as possible. _Bleeding from the eyes? But that implant's dead, how could that be? Where would she go if it was active again? _That was easy. The only way they knew of shutting down the implant was to use a defibrillator, and unless she had one just lying around, she would have to make her way to a hospital. Nothing guaranteed that White had managed to catch her again. She could have gotten to a hospital and hidden out for a while. It was worth a shot anyway.

"Joshua, can you take everybody to Sandeman's house? It's as good a place as any to relax. I'm going to head over to Harbor Lights Hospital to see if I can find Max there."

Alec looked up at the other man. "Why there?"

"Because in her current condition, she's going to need a hospital. Plus Dr. Shankar already knows all about her past, and she'll be there today." Just as he was about to head down into the sewers, he turned back and held out his hand. "By the way, could I have my glasses back?"

Alec reached into his jacket pocket and pulled them out. "Almost forgot about these." He didn't have the time to say anything else, Logan was already into the sewers.

********************

The car ride had been long and silent, but the mutual hatred could almost be touched. The frequent glares, the white knuckles, and the occasionally grinding teeth spoke volumes more than if Max or White had said anything out loud. _And I thought my one car ride alone with Lydecker was bad,_ Max thought miserably. This uncomfortable little trip was only made worse by the fact that it was practically impossible to hide her shaking from White. She couldn't let him see any weakness, or they would never get to the hospital. _How long do I actually have left before I pass out? Last time, I wasn't even experiencing seizures until after I went unconscious. How long will it take this time? _She didn't even want to think about it.

As the car pulled into the parking lot, doubts flashed through Max's mind. Would Dr. Shankar be available? Anyone else would turn her in and she'd be right back where she'd started. What if she passed out too early? Perhaps White would still have her treated; after all, he still wanted his son back. But he could just as easily leave her, get himself treated, and think of it as a job well done. Others knew where Ray was, he didn't necessarily need her. 

Her grip nervously tightened on the gun. With her deteriorating health, she might have to depend on it much more than she ever would have wanted. As soon as the car was parked, she got out of the car as quickly as her body would allow. She started backing away from the car as White climbed out, making sure he could see the gun at all times. "Go in, get yourself treated, and leave without making any inquiries not pertaining to your own condition. I don't care what you do after that, as long as it doesn't involve me. Now get in there."

White's face remained expressionless, but he couldn't hide the limp. For the first time in several years, there were bolts of pain shooting up and down his right leg. Seeing as how he hadn't actually felt pain since he was a child, it was becoming rather overwhelming. Of course, the top half of his body was turning strangely numb, breathing was increasingly difficult, and his eyesight was getting fuzzy. _There shouldn't be this much blood. _How could he still be functioning with so much blood loss? For the first time since he had gotten his hands on Max, she was the farthest thing from his mind. He wanted to find his son, but it would be worthless if he died before even getting to look for him.

Max finally sighed with relief when he was out of sight. Without even bothering to pull up her hood, she ran into the hospital and grabbed the first nurse she came to. "Where's Dr. Shankar?"

The nurse seemed rather taken aback by the condition of the young woman in front of her. "She's in surgery right now, but one of our other doctors might be able to see you."

"No, I need to see Dr. Shankar! I don't care how you do it, but get her in here now!" She was hardly aware of a grip she had on the nurse's arm, but tears actually sprang to the other woman's eyes before she let go. "I'm sorry, but I really need to see her."

The nurse nodded nervously, backing away the entire time. "I'll see what I can do."

Max dropped into the nearest seat, completely ignoring the stares of everyone nearby. She started instinctively pulling herself into a ball as the seizures worsened, struggling to hold them back. _I only need a little more time. Just a little more time._ Funny, she had been thinking something so similar not too long ago when she had been silently praying for just a little more strength. _Look where that got me._

Dr. Shankar's breath caught in her throat when she saw Max. It wasn't just her appearance, it was the fact that she could be in serious trouble if the government found out about this. Enough people were looking in their direction to worry her. "Come with me, we're going to have to talk in private." She wasn't too much happier when she heard the entire story either. 

********************

Mole and his crew had already headed out in three groups. Mole's group was going to Harbor Lights Hospital, and the other two groups were heading to the hospitals closest to JamPony. Now Alec was just trying to get comfortable in his bed. It felt like it had been forever since the last time he had slept, and he was set on catching up on that missing time.

__

Who is banging around? I swear, if they make me come down there… Apparently, the person downstairs didn't care about the racket they were making, because it only seemed to get louder. Alec finally just climbed out of bed and headed down the stairs. The other people in the building seemed to know what was going on, because they didn't seem all that concerned about the noise. He ended up just asking an X6 about what was going on.

"You didn't know?" the girl asked, looking up at him innocently. "That Familiar spy is being held downstairs. They needed to keep her somewhere near the Rec Center, so this was their best choice. Weren't you informed of the situation?"

"No, I've been away for a little while," he grumbled, shoving his way past her and heading down to the basement. He doubted Minx would listen to him, but he wasn't planning on doing much talking if she didn't cooperate.

The banging stopped abruptly when he entered the basement; Minx was too busy laughing. "Can't take a little noise? I thought your kind were supposed to be tough?"

"You don't know anything about _our kind_, as you put it. We're an entirely different race from you, we're as separate as cats and dogs." Giving her a very deliberate once-over with his eyes, he added, "I think I'll place you under the dog category."

She chuckled, trying to make herself more comfortable against the beam she was tied to. "You're not as different as you think you are. Sandeman made you all to spite us, but he ended up making you more similar than you know."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about your immunity to our pathogen. Sure, it means that you'll live if you're exposed to it, but it can also make you carriers."

"Once again, what the hell are you talking about? I don't see where you're going with this, or why I should care. I didn't come down here for a science lesson, and I'm not interested in knowing anything about this pathogen you're talking about. As long as I know I can live through it, I don't need to know anything else."

"I guess you're not as close to 452 as I thought you were."

"What does this have to do with Max?"

"It has everything to do with her. She's the only natural cure for the virus, my analysis of her blood showed that much."

Now she had Alec's attention, but not in the way she thought she did. "Your analysis? You're a scientist?"

The question seemed to catch her off guard, she had thought that he'd be more interested in the fact that Max was the cure. "Yes, but I think you're slightly missing the point here. Max, as you call her, was meant to be a cure for the virus, but Sandeman didn't count on one thing. After he was chased out of Manticore, the other scientists that had been creating the transgenics saw the immunity that all of you held and used it to their advantage. They managed to make a form of our virus that was different enough so that your antibodies didn't destroy it, but it wouldn't affect you. They were using it as one of their main weapons by targeting it to the DNA of their enemies, putting it in one of their soldiers, and sending that soldier to do nothing more than touch that enemy and get away without any suspicion."

"Are you telling me that's what they did to Max?"

"Aren't you the brilliant one? But I guess you don't see the problem yet, so maybe I'll spell it out for you since I'm being so kindly treated," she snapped sarcastically. "Until the virus in her is killed, she can't be used for the cure. Sandeman had been planning to harvest her blood, in a manner of speaking, by taking a little bit out of her as she grew. Your kind regenerate so quickly that he'd be able to take a decent amount of blood every other day. He had been planning to start this harvesting around the age of ten, when her body's physical advantages would completely come into play, but you already know what got in the way of that. The strain of the virus that she has is directed at one person through physical contact, but it could still do damage to anyone if it was entered directly into their bloodstream. Perhaps it wouldn't be as harmful as the pure form of the virus, but it's still dangerous. As long as it's in her, she's useless as a cure, and since it's been made to survive in her, she can't cure herself."

"Then how do you get rid of it?"

Minx rolled her eyes. "You actually think I'm going to tell you? I'm being held against my will, I have no reason to share anything with you. Find a way to get me out of here, and I'll think about it."

"Share what you know, and _I'll_ think about it. I'll let you think that over for awhile." It was a relief to leave the room. Alec didn't even know why he had bothered to stay in there that long, Minx could have been lying to convince him to let her go. For all he knew, she was a plumber. Still, Terminal City needed Max, and if he could get rid of the main reason she wanted to leave, then they might get her back.

********************

A strange, heavy feeling had filled Logan's stomach by the time he reached the hospital. Every last instinct was screaming that something was wrong. There were a couple defibrillators in Terminal City, she didn't necessarily have to go to the hospital. Was she trying to stay away because she didn't think she was going to make it? He doubted any X5 would want to die while surrounded by a bunch of people, it was probably something that they'd want to be alone for. Also, Max wouldn't want to put anyone through more pain than they needed to be. 

His feeling didn't get any better when he entered the hospital. He didn't really like hospitals anyway, so the fact that Max might need to be in one didn't make him feel any better. He walked up to the counter where a very hassled-looking nurse was trying to take in all the calls she was receiving. "Excuse me, but is Dr. Shankar in today?"

The nurse covered the mouthpiece of her phone in exasperation. "She's with a patient, you'll have to make an appointment."

Just as she was about to start talking to the person on the other end of the line again, Logan reached over the counter and pulled the phone away from her mouth. "Could you tell me where she's seeing this patient? It's kind of urgent."

"All I know is she's on the second floor," the woman snapped, jerking the phone out of Logan's hand. At least he knew a little more. The only thing he hadn't expected was how crowded the second floor was. There were people packed into the halls and patients in every room, and there was far too much talking going on. There was no way Logan would be able to find her in the next three hours if he didn't get a little more information. He started asking every person he came across if they knew where Dr. Shankar was, but either they just didn't know, or they had no clue who she was. 

He was about halfway down the hall before he actually saw another doctor. "I need to know where Dr. Shankar is!" he half-shouted, trying to be heard over the commotion around them.

"She's in the second room on your left, just around the corner!" the doctor replied, also having to shout. Logan nodded his gratitude as he passed by, trying to squeeze in between bickering families, screaming children, and lone adults who were trying to get the attention of the doctor that he had just spoken to. The corner itself was a huge obstacle because of all the people who were going in the opposite direction; he had to practically flatten himself against the wall in order to get past them. He ended up sliding into the room and swinging the door shut before other people could try to get in by Dr. Shankar.

When he turned around, he saw Dr. Shankar lowering herself into a chair next to the cot that Max was lying on. The paddles of the defibrillator were on the table next to them. Max's eyes were closed, but there was blood smeared on her face underneath them. "Did you already short circuit the implant?"

Dr. Shankar's eyes moved to Max's limp body. "I'm sorry, Logan, but I'm afraid I have some bad news. You might want to sit down."

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Author's Note 2: Same old, same old. Please review!


	10. Dark Day

Author's Note: Wow, I updated in under a week! I went camping this weekend, so I came back ready to write. I also would like to finish this story before school starts. I don't think it's going to happen, but I want to get as far as possible. 

Disclaimer: I own Minx, but nobody else. Why do I get stuck with the hated ones? :)

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Dust In The Wind 

By Be Boring 

****

Chapter 10: Dark Day

__

Bad news? Sit down? God, no. Logan shakily lowered himself into the only available chair left in the room and turned his eyes towards Max. Was she breathing? He was so shaken that he couldn't tell. "What's wrong? What's going on? Is she alive?" The words seemed to rush out of his mouth so quickly that he wasn't sure Dr. Shankar had made out anything he'd said.

"Yes, she's alive, but barely. At the moment she's in a coma. I normally would have declared her critical, but that would draw too much attention. All we can hope is that she pulls out of it."

"So, what happened? What kind of condition was she in when she came to you?"

"I don't think she knew how critical she was, even when I deactivated the implant. She was still conscious when I used the defibrillator, and at first I thought she was going to be fine, but she just passed out. Everything has been downhill from there. Her body is trying to get rid of the implant, but she wore herself down so much that she had to literally shut down in order to do any good for herself. Unfortunately, I don't think she has enough strength left in her to come back out of it. I'm not sure she'll die, but I highly doubt she'll ever wake up. I'm really sorry, Logan."

Logan shook his head. "I won't believe that. Nothing has ever been able to keep Max down for long, and she's been through more than even a transgenic should go through. She's survived that implant before with flying colors, I won't believe that it can get rid of her this time. She has to wake up." He reached inside his pocket and pulled out his gloves, slid them on, then sat down and took Max's hand in his. "I'm going to be here when she does."

Dr. Shankar opened her mouth as if she was going to contradict him, or at least urge him to go home, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, she turned and went out the door, getting swept up in the rush of patients outside. Logan didn't even acknowledge that she had left, everything else seemed to be fading away. Now he could see that Max was breathing deeply, it only looked like she was sleeping. He squeezed her hand gently and waited for a response, but there was none. He squeezed a little harder, but there was still no reaction. Finally, he leaned forward until he was as close to her ear as possible without touching her. 

"Max, I'm right here. If you can hear me, please do something." He squeezed her hand again. "If you can feel that, please squeeze back." Nothing. _Maybe she just needs a little time to recover. That's it, her body just needs to work through its problems. She's an X5, so a normal diagnosis can't really count for her. Can it? _Dr. Shankar was a little more familiar with transgenics than other doctors, she must have taken Max's genetic make-up into account. Still, she could be wrong. Max wasn't the average X5, she didn't have any junk DNA. Although they didn't know yet what she was designed for, some of that programming had to be useful right now. 

********************

If there was anything Mole hated most, it was waiting. He liked things to be done right away, and done correctly. He also hated having to depend on others to get something done, but in this case he didn't have much choice. Dealing with ordinaries was something that had to be left up to the X series and psy-ops. He'd brought some of both with him, they were better at getting information. At the moment, he was sitting in an alley outside of Harbor Lights Hospital waiting for his informants to come back. Although he didn't like Logan, he couldn't deny that the man obviously knew Max very well, and if he said that she could be at this hospital, then that's where Mole was going to look. 

Lex, a teenage psy-ops, was the first to return. Her eyes always made him nervous, mainly because every now and then they mirrored light back at him like a cat's. "A woman fitting 452's description came in earlier to see Dr. Shankar. She is in room 211. It sounds like that ordinary is in there with her." As Mole was about to dismiss her, she added, "Ames White is also a patient here. He's on the second floor as well."

"What's he being treated for?"

"A punctured lung, a stab wound on his right side, a broken ankle, two gashes in his mouth, and severe blood loss. They have him sedated at the moment."

Mole immediately pulled out his cell phone and pressed redial. Seeing as how he never called any number other than the Rec Center, there wasn't usually a need to dial anything. Without waiting for Dix's greeting, he went straight into his demands. "Max is at Harbor Lights Hospital. I'm going to need backup, it appears that Ames White is here also. He's out of commission temporarily, but I doubt that will last long. We don't have a lot of time to get her out of here, but we'll need to do it as soon as possible. Send every available soldier as soon as you can. I'm hoping to get her out of here by 1700 hours."

Alec listened to the click on the other end of the line, silently laughing at how stupid Mole could be sometimes. He hadn't even bothered to make sure that Dix was the person who had answered the phone. True, if Mole had called even thirty seconds earlier, it would have been Dix that would have answered, but even Dix couldn't deny it when nature calls. Alec had just happened to come in here at that time. After his discussion with Minx, he had tried to get some sleep again, but everything she had said wouldn't leave his mind. Eventually he had given up and gone to talk to Dix and Luke, who knew pretty much everything that Logan and the others had gotten out of her. Luke wasn't here, but Dix had shared as much as he could. 

Now with everything that Mole had just said, Alec's head was working overtime. Familiars were tough, so torture would never get through to them, but Minx might talk if White ordered her to. They could form some kind of a deal; White would tell Minx to help them cure the virus in exchange for some information on his son. It wouldn't be too difficult to get the two together, they could just sneak White out of the hospital when they went to get Max. If he was 'out of commission temporarily' as Mole had said, then he shouldn't be too much trouble. The most they would have to watch out for would be people trying to stop them from leaving. There wasn't much security at the hospital, but someone could always call the sector police. They seemed to be a little more honorable now that everyone was so afraid of transgenics.

"I'm not going to get a team together if I'm sitting here," he muttered out loud. It was time to get moving.

********************

Logan was nearly asleep next to Max, and if it wasn't for how sore he was, he probably already would be sleeping. The chair was so stiff that his entire back had practically seized up. Still, the discomfort in his body couldn't have been farther from his mind. He hadn't been able to take his eyes off Max's face. It seemed that he could stare straight past the dried blood to the beautiful, troubled woman underneath. She had been through so much in her life, but she just kept going. Nothing could keep her down for long, no matter what the odds were. After all of that, how could something she had already survived through once kill her now? It was almost ironic. The Reds and their implants had been long forgotten while the cult had taken its place, but it was still the Reds that had the best chance of finishing what the cult wanted.

__

What will I do if she doesn't make it? It nearly killed me last time, the only thing that kept me going was the thought of revenge on Manticore. I guess I could always touch her. The virus would still work for a little while, just touching her hand would still kill me. The more he thought about it, the more it appealed to him. If Max didn't make it, he'd go right with her. "I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving your side. I've told you before, and I'm sure you knew whether or not I said it out loud, but I love you. I know we'll probably never be together, but that doesn't stop my feelings. Even if you move on someday, or don't get the chance to, I'll still be right by your side… no matter what."

"Isn't that sweet? As touching as this little moment is, I don't suppose you could tear yourself away from Max and let me in?"

Logan's head snapped up in shock. Mole was peering in through the window, which was only opened a half-inch. Logan ran over and opened it all the way, and Mole pulled himself through the window and onto the floor along with what looked like a bundle of straps. He was breathing hard as he sat up and glanced over at Max's bed. "I sure hope she's worth all this trouble. I was made for long journeys through the desert, not scaling walls."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "But this is only the second floor."

"I also wasn't made for jumping. If you happened to know many other X series, I would have let them bounce up here, but unfortunately I don't think you would have opened the window for anyone you didn't know."

"Would you blame me? It could be a Familiar, I'm not about to let any of them in if I can help it."

"Well, let's forget about that, we've got to get her out of here. It's not going to take anyone long to realize she's here, I'm sure some of the staff remembers her from her last serious stay here. We both know that as soon as she's in government hands, she'll be right back with the cult. So, on to business. I know if won't be easy, but you're going to need to get everyone out of the immediate area."

Now Logan nearly laughed. "You want me to clear out that hallway? It's like you're asking me to empty the ocean with a bucket. There's no way it's gonna happen."

Strangely enough, Mole just grinned and pulled something out of his pocket. "I think we'll make it work."

Five minutes later, Logan went stumbling out of the room, surrounded by a truly foul stench. People within fifteen feet of him backed away as quickly as possible. He shook as he walked, then doubled over and opened his mouth to let out the fake vomit he had been storing there. Now people were backing all the way up to fifty feet away from him. He looked blearily around at everyone staring at him and let a little drool come out. "Don't worry, the doctor says it's not too contagious just yet as long as nobody touches something that I have touched." Turning around and looking at a couple that had flattened themselves against the wall because of the density of the crowd, he added, "You might not want to do that, I was leaning against that wall on the way to the room." As everyone leapt away from the wall as if they were one body, he scratched his head. "Or was it the other wall?" Then he turned around and looked at the people behind him. "Did I come from that way?" Now people had crammed themselves into the middle of the hallway, unsure if they should touch the walls. Logan snapped his fingers as though he had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, I couldn't walk so I just crawled, that's right. Have the janitors been up here yet? They were supposed to disinfect the floor." 

Logan could have laughed at how quickly everyone rushed out of the hallway. He crept to the corner and peered around to see if they were getting all the way off the floor. Sure enough, the message seemed to be getting passed along to others and everyone was rushing to the stairs. He walked back into Max's room shaking his head in amusement. Mole looked up and smirked.

"Let me guess, they ran like the devil was on their heels?"

"Well, I _did_ smell pretty bad. I'm going to have to take a shower when we get back to Terminal City. By the way, that fake vomit tasted horrible. I'm starting to wonder where you got it, and if it's a little more _not_ fake than anything else."

Mole laughed as he carefully gathered up Max in his arms. "Relax, one of my crew got it from a joke shop." He looked warily down at Max. "You know, if she wakes up and sees me like this, I'm going to get my ass kicked. Let's just hurry up and get this harness on her."

Alec listened to the conversation from outside the door, making sure he didn't step into the puddle of fake vomit. Mole wasn't going to be happy about this, so it was best if he didn't find out until White was already in Terminal City. He had managed to talk a couple of the X6s from his building into helping him for a little bit of money. They weren't quite as strong as X5s, but they would work for what he wanted. All they had to do catch the man when he went out the window. Alec wasn't about to be as careful with White as Mole and Logan were going to be with Max. 

Even Alec had to admit that White looked pretty beat up. _Damn, Max went wild on him._ Now that the bruises were starting to come in, he looked like someone had taken a bat and used him for baseball practice. Still, that didn't stop Alec from disconnecting him from the machines surrounding him and dragging him unceremoniously by the armpits to the window. There were three X6s standing below, ready to catch him. Since Alec just dumped him from the window, he didn't land perfectly in their arms. Everyone held their breath as the cast on his right leg bounced off the ground and cracked in half. Apparently they had given him a lot of sedatives, because he didn't even flinch. 

Alec swung right out the window to land perfectly on the ground. Everyone grabbed one of White's limbs and started making their way to the truck they had taken. As they pulled out and passed by the hospital on the way to the road, Alec glanced at the real team he had gathered together to get Max out of the hospital. Right now they were slowly lowering Max down to the ground with a harness. They had looped a rope around Mole's arms, which were shaking from Max's weight. _That poor guy is going to have some rope burns when they're through. _Well, maybe that would slow him down when he went to attack Alec after he found out that White was right in their home. _Now I'll just have to watch my back for the other few hundred residents there._

********************

Logan couldn't have been happier when Max was laid onto a cot in the infirmary of Terminal City. She was actually in the same room that he had been in during his stay. It also helped the knot in his stomach when Dana came in to check Max out. If anyone could find a way to help Max, it would be her. He just hoped that she came back out with good news.

When Dana finally did come back out, Logan was the first person to reach her. "How's she doing?"

Dana glanced at the tiny notebook she was constantly taking notes on her patients with. "She's not good, I don't think she'll pull out of the coma on her own. Still, I think we can give her a little help. She's going to need some blood transfusions to help out her own antibodies, which were all pretty much used up while she was going around with that implant in working condition. I say we should take them from a few different candidates just in case her body rejects one of the transfusions. I don't see why that would happen, but Max isn't like the other X series so we might want to take extra precautions. I'm going to need someone to find other volunteers to give us some blood, I want to do this as soon as possible."

Logan was slightly taken aback when Alec appeared by his side. "I'll take care of that. Should it be specifically X5?"

"It doesn't have to be X5, but I'd like to keep it within the X series. Try to get at least four different people if you can. I'd take two, but it will be better if we have more."

Alec nodded and walked off, leaving Logan to talk to Dana alone. "Are you sure this will work?"

She looked at him sympathetically. "I can't say for sure, but it will really improve her chances. I think you know better than anyone else how tough Max is, so I think it's worthwhile to say that you shouldn't give up hope. It could still be a few days before anything happens, but I guess it's no use telling you to go home and get some rest, much less ask you to leave Terminal City for your own health."

Logan smiled sadly and shook his head. "Not a chance."

********************

It only took a half hour for Alec to collect enough people to give blood. Everyone knew Max, so there was no shortage of people willing to help her. It ended up being two X5s and two X6s that headed off to the infirmary to help. He would have given some blood as well, but he had work to do. They had snuck White into a storage closet just outside the door to the basement, so there wouldn't be too far to move him when the negotiations started.

Minx looked up as he walked in. "Two visits in one day? I'm so honored. Is there some reason I keep getting cursed with your company?"

"You know what I want, and I let you think it over. I'm just here to give you a little extra inspiration."

**************************************************************************

Author's Note 2: I think we all know what I'm going to say. Please please please review! Geez, that sounded like begging. No, I'm not begging, I'm asking urgently. It's always nice to read what everybody thinks.


	11. Nasty Negotiations

Author's Note: I figured I should warn everyone that there's a not-so-pleasant section in here that involves Alec and White. I don't know the age-range of everyone who's reading this story, so just be aware that there's some intense violence with those two.

Disclaimer: I've actually run out of different ways to say what we all know: I don't own DA. I was wrong though in my last disclaimer, Minx isn't the only one I own. I also own Dana, and she's a good one. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

****

Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

****

Chapter 11: Nasty Negotiations

The last few days had been the longest that Logan had ever had to live through. Every day consisted of sitting by Max in the infirmary, watching her face and praying for her to wake up. The blood transfusions had been done as soon as the volunteers had shown up, so, according to Dana, Max should begin improving soon if they had any effect. Since the X series were made so that they could give blood to each other in an emergency, there wasn't much fear about the transfusions being rejected like they had been with him. 

Alec and Joshua were the other frequent visitors, but Alec never stayed long. He only popped in occasionally to ask how Max was doing, then left again. Joshua, however, would sit by Max's side and hold her free hand, the other one was usually being held by Logan. He could see how difficult it was for Joshua to look at her in this condition, but the canine transgenic never seemed to let how he felt get the best of him. Still, he had come straight back to Terminal City when he'd heard all that had happened. Sketchy and Original Cindy had already gone back to their own homes, so there was no reason for him to stay in Sandeman's house. Unlike the vast majority of transgenics here, he liked being in Terminal City. It was a comfort for him to be around others like himself. 

__

How will Max react when she wakes up and finds herself back here? Will she be angry with everyone for dragging her back, or will she be happy to be with us again? Logan always thought in terms of _when_, not _if_. For him, there was almost no doubt that Max would wake up again. As far as he was concerned, she was practically invincible. It was a feeling shared by pretty much everybody in this miserable little portion of Seattle. In this day and age, they needed someone to believe in. Unfortunately for Max, who had always preferred to stay out of the spotlight, that someone happened to be her. Maybe Terminal City felt even more like a prison to her than Manticore. At least when she was at Manticore she was just part of the crowd and wasn't expected to do any more than anyone else, but here she had the most pressure out of anyone because she was the one that everyone recognized. She wasn't actually in charge, just more of a popular bystander, while Mole, Luke, and Dix did the most work in keeping Terminal City running smoothly.

Dana's entrance was a nice break from the monotony. "Have the test results come back?" he asked automatically. There had been a short series of tests earlier that morning to see if Max was accepting the blood and how it was affecting her. 

Dana nodded, handing him a file with a few papers that he managed to recognize as test results, but couldn't completely understand. "Even though you might not be able to interpret what you're seeing, it's very good news. The new blood is working faster than I'd expected it to, and her injuries are healing at an almost normal rate for an X5. I think it might be because of the X6 blood, because they were made from the DNA of various big cats, rather than just your average domestic cat. It's still perfectly compatible with hers, but maybe the variety is good for the healing. I've never actually exchanged blood between the two groups, so this is all rather new territory for me. All in all, I think the improvement is quite impressive and it honestly wouldn't surprise me if she woke up today or tomorrow."

Logan's eyes shot back to Max. She could wake up soon? He couldn't think of anything that would make him happier. Then he looked down at his gloved hand holding hers. Maybe he could think of something.

********************

Alec's patience was quickly running out. He had been trying to persuade Minx to share whatever she knew about the virus in Max, but she was being even less cooperative than usual. It seemed like she had panicked slightly, she was under the impression that she would be killed as soon as he got what he wanted. Actually, that was what Alec had been planning to do. This woman had seen too much of the inside of Terminal City, it would be downright stupid to let her share what she knew with the Conclave. As soon as everything was settled here, Minx would no longer be a plague on them. 

"For the last time, just tell me whatever you can, and I promise you won't be hurt." Alec was just barely restraining himself from rubbing his temples. Although his words didn't mean anything, he was still forcing them out. Ever since White had woken up, Alec had decided to use him as a last resort. It was more than obvious that he wasn't going to be very much help, but Alec didn't know if that would change if he baited him with information on his son. Because of how loud he had become while Alec didn't want anyone to find him yet, Alec had bound him from head to toe with anything he could find; ropes, chains, sheets, shoelaces, etc. Now White could barely move himself two inches, much less find a way out of the closet that he'd been locked in. 

"Those words are as empty as your head, I know that you'll get rid of me as soon as you're sure that your precious Max will be safe."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Precious? I think you have Logan and I mixed up. I'm just looking out for my own best interests here."

"Wouldn't that be to leave the virus in her? That way she can't be with Logan, and she could see you as the next suitable male. Don't tell me that's never occurred to you."

"I'd be lying if I said that it hasn't, but I'm not stupid enough to think that any virus would ever keep Max and Logan away from each other. Besides, I'm not interested in a world that only consists of transgenics and familiars, because it would be all out war and that's what would happen if we let your little pathogen destroy humanity, so to speak. At least there's a chance of it not happening if Max is virus-free. I know you prefer the way she is now, but your people can still try to kill her after you get your ass out of here."

Minx was silent for a few minutes, but in the end she still shook her head. "Not only would my people be outraged with me helping the enemy, but I know I won't be getting my ass out of here like you said. Keeping quiet is the only way I can be sure of staying alive."

"And what a wonderful life it will be here in this rotting basement," Alec snapped, slamming the door as he stepped out only to open the one a few feet away. White's head lifted off the ground as far as he could move it as he strained to hear Alec's movements. Alec didn't even bother sneaking around him. He reached down and picked up White by the hair, lifting him all the way to his bound feet. "You and me are going to have a little talk."

********************

"No no no no. No, we're going to get you out of here. Okay, it's going to be alright," Logan choked out. Max could sense his body shaking, but everything was so fuzzy that it was hard to sort much else out. She could remember her own childhood face and the strange sight of a gun in those hands. Why had she felt so happy afterwards? Had that happiness been a dream? If it was, then she needed to get something straight with Logan right now.

__

"There's something I've got to tell you. I should've said something a long time ago." She needed to tell him, there was no way she could go without letting him know. She just needed to get it out. The urgency of what she was feeling was starting to turn into a sense of helplessness as everything seemed to grow darker. Tears started to burn in her eyes, but unlike usual she didn't even bother to hold them back. In fact, it was something of a relief as they started to flow.

"It can wait." Didn't he understand? She needed to say it now; it couldn't wait any longer. It was so hard to breathe. So hard.

"Logan…" Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to force the words out, but his face was fading so quickly. She barely heard him say her name.

~~~~~~

"That year we wasted, dancing around each other, afraid of actually admitting how we felt…If I had that time back, I would do that so differently." She could see the regret in his eyes; wondering how things would have been if they had actually managed to be upfront with each other. She had wondered that many times too.

The pager was the last thing Max had ever expected to go off. Why now? Why couldn't it have waited even five more minutes? She could see the disappointment written all over his face. "I guess that's it, then." She had expected him to leave, but the feel of his lips against hers came as a complete surprise. Although they had only kissed a few times in the past, it felt more familiar than the taste of food. Why had she wasted all that time today? It had seemed to be the right thing to do at the time, but now it felt as though she had made the mistake of a lifetime. She had given up the only chance she had to be with Logan, and it was killing her now. The look on Logan's face as he backed away from her and climbed out of the car assured her that he felt the same.

"I love you, Max."

Was there such a thing as hearing your own heart break? She wouldn't have said so five minutes earlier, but now she wasn't so sure. It was almost unbearable to watch him walk away. "I love you, too." The words were out, but there was no one to hear them. Something told her that might always be the case.

~~~~~~

Not many of Max's memories seemed to make any sense. Many just blended into each other without allowing her to get much out of them, and others looked as though she was seeing them from miles away. Still, there were some that stood out more than the rest. It was like she was reliving them, and the pain was as fresh as it had been on the day it had happened. The strangest thing was that despite her regret at the time, she knew now there really wasn't anything she would have done differently on those specific occasions. As much as she would have loved to stay with Logan that night they had found Tinga's dead body, it wasn't in her heart to do it because then she had thought she had more time with him. Strangely enough, even when she knew she didn't have time to spare, she had still gone off to get rid of that Gossamer creature. Maybe she had taken Logan's patience for granted. Maybe she thought that no matter what she forced him to wait through, he would still be there afterwards. How could she expect that of anyone? He was only human; an incredible human, but still a human nevertheless. 

"Logan." The voice was hardly audible, but Logan's head shot up from its resting place on his arm. Everything was still the same, but he could have sworn he'd heard his name. _It's just wishful thinking. There's nobody here but Max, and she's not about to start talking. _Still, his eyes never left her face as if he was expecting her to open her mouth and say his name again. _No, not again. She couldn't have said it in the first place. I'm just a little sleep deprived, that's all. _Then again, the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was possible she had spoken. Dana had said Max could wake up today or tomorrow, and he had never seen her wait until the last minute for something this important before. 

Had her eyelid just twitched? Logan took a deep breath to calm himself down, there was no point getting worked up about this if he was just imagining it. Watching her face carefully, he squeezed her hand. There was dead silence as he waited for a reaction. _It's all in my head, I really need to get some sleep. _He sighed with disappointment and dropped his head back onto his arm. Suddenly, Max's hand tightened around his. Logan was upright in an instant.

"Max, can you hear me?" He squeezed her hand again, and this time the gesture was returned almost instantly. Now her eyelids actually fluttered and opened slightly, but it was obvious she wasn't seeing much. "Max, I'm right here, can you hear me?"

Her eyes didn't move much, but she whispered, "Logan?" She could hear him, and she could even vaguely smell him, but her eyes wouldn't allow her to see him. The whole room was a blur of colors that she couldn't seem to close in on, but she didn't worry about it too much. Logan was here, so at least she was safe. What had happened since she went to see Dr. Shankar? "Im..Implant?" she choked out, feeling much of her energy drain simply from saying the word.

"It's been deactivated. You went into a coma, so we brought you back to Terminal City so that the familiars couldn't get to you and so that your own kind could treat you. It looks like it worked."

The familiars? Had they been there? White's face flashed briefly through her mind. It wouldn't surprise her if he had called in his people to get her after she was in the hospital. "White…at the hospital."

"Yeah, we heard. I don't know what happened after we got you out, but I know he was being treated for some pretty serious wounds. They made it sound like he'll live, but I don't think he got the chance to contact anyone before we brought you here. If he has by now, then I guess they'll be disappointed."

With her emotions from the memories still very fresh, she knew she had to say something before she lost the courage. "Logan…I really need to tell you something."

It felt familiar to Logan somehow, but unlike the last time this had happened, he didn't put her off. "I'm listening. What is it?"

"I know…it's probably not the best time to say…what I've been waiting to." She was so tired that she wasn't sure she'd be able to finish, but she was sick of something coming in the way of this. "With the virus…it feels more like torture because I can't express everything…but I can't keep putting this off." Why was it so hard to say? She was exhausted, yet she kept saying everything but what she wanted to. It seemed that after all this time, she was still dancing around her feelings. It was time for that to stop. "I love you. I know I can't do anything about it…but that's what I feel."

Logan wasn't quite sure what to say. Did she really mean what she was saying, or was she just a little foggy from waking up from a coma? He really believed that she had loved him at one time, but wasn't it possible that the virus had pulled them apart? Maybe she was just having a memory from before the virus and didn't remember that they could no longer touch. He rubbed her hand gently, staring sadly down at the glove. Max followed his gaze.

"I wish you didn't have to wear that around me. It's like that glove is mocking us." 

Well, she remembered the virus perfectly, so did that mean she still meant what she had said? "Listen, I don't mean to sound negative, but are you sure you really mean what you're saying? You've been through a really hard time lately, so I won't blame you if you want to take back anything you said."

Max couldn't believe what she was hearing. The shock actually seemed to give her a little burst of energy. "Take it back? Why the hell would I want to do that? I meant every word, but if you don't want to take it at face value, then maybe you shouldn't be in here."

"No, I'm staying right here whether you like it or not. I just wanted to make sure you weren't confused after waking up from a few days of being in a coma. I didn't mean anything bad by it."

"A few days? Have I really been out that long?"

"You were actually lucky to wake up at all. If Dana hadn't thought of giving you a few blood transfusions to get some fresh antibodies into you, you probably wouldn't have come out of it at all. Dr. Shankar didn't think you had a chance. I can't say it was easy to hear all that, but I'm glad you're going to be okay now."

She glanced at his gloved hand again. "I could be better though. It's hard to admit to something when you know it doesn't matter, nothing can happen anyways."

Logan watched as the anger she had felt earlier left her, leaving her body looking paler and weaker than ever. "You're wrong, it does matter. Just so you know nothing has changed, I love you too. You know, getting rid of this virus used to be so important, at least until you found that temporary cure. Ever since then it's like we've given up. Maybe this will give us the inspiration to keep going. Who knows, maybe some of the transgenic medics will know something about the virus. If Manticore trained them to treat transgenics, then they might have dealt with some of the Manticore viruses. Even if there's no way to cure it, there might be a way to work around it so we can be together."

Max smiled slightly, closing her eyes to get ready for some much needed rest. "I hope so, I really do."

********************

After spending so much nonproductive time with Minx, Alec wasn't about to waste any time with White. He needed cooperation right away, and if he didn't get it then things were going to get nasty. Now White was lying on the floor of Alec's makeshift apartment so that they could talk out of earshot of Minx, enjoying his short time without the gag in his mouth. "I don't see why you're doing this, what are you going to gain?" White finally asked, watching the X5 pace back and forth across the room.

"I'm going to gain a better chance of freedom. Let me explain how this whole chain reaction works. Minx's whole purpose of being in Terminal City was to find information on your son, and now she's the only one who can get it for you. She knows how to get rid of a little problem that Max has had for a while now that's been making life uncomfortable for her and everyone close to her. So, here's what is going to happen: you'll tell Minx to fix Max's little problem in exchange for whatever we can tell you about Ray, and things will improve here. Understand?"

"You're not going to tell me anything about my son. I know one thing for sure, you and 452 are completely different. I actually think that she would honor an agreement of this kind, while you would have no problem getting rid of me once everything's said and done. If anything like this is going to work, I'll need to speak directly to 452."

Alec kneeled down in front of him, cracking his knuckles to keep his anger in check. "I'm afraid that's not possible. I'll be the only one you will deal with, and you're just going to have to accept it. If we can't work together, then life will become very uncomfortable for you." He reached out and grabbed White's broken ankle. Since the cast had broken off during the escape from the hospital, there was nothing keeping him from causing a lot of damage. His fingers dug into the swollen flesh until he heard the joint grinding under the pressure. All the color left White's face as he struggled to keep the pain from showing. "Do you at least understand that?"

White took a deep breath as his mind tried to force the pain away. "I understand, but I'm not agreeing to anything. I'll need to think this over."

Alec jerked his hand sideways, resulting in a loud _crack_ from White's ankle. "Why don't you let your leg do the thinking for you? There's many ways that I can break your bones, and I have all the time in the world to do it. I'm not going to wait for you to waste my time by thinking over everything only to tell me you're not going to be any help. So I'm going to speed up the process. I can tell you're already to the point where you can feel pain, so I think you'll learn very quickly about how to respond when I ask you something." 

Every muscle in White's body was tensed, waiting for more pain to come. "I don't take orders from filth."

Alec chuckled darkly, pulling a pocketknife out of his jeans. This was almost fun for him. _Now I can see why Ben got a rush from this. He was right about one thing, we were always meant to be predators. _"Filth? Does filth usually hurt you this much?" He flipped out the blade of the knife and tilted White's head to the side so that the stitches where Max had slapped him were facing up. The other side would have worked just as well, but this wound was larger. He dug the end of the blade under one of the stitches and jerked up violently. White's body bent in half in an attempt to pull his head away from Alec's grasp.

"Oh no you don't," Alec growled, grabbing White's hair and dragging him back. Without any hesitation, he set to work digging up the stitches. He pressed a knee into White's chest to hold him still as he worked, and he felt a rush of satisfaction at the pain in the other man's eyes. The blood seeping out over White's cheek and the fact that the same amount had to be running into his mouth was like a sign of victory. Alec knew White could hold out for a little while, but without being used to this kind of pain, he'd cave in eventually.

"You're not going to get anywhere," White spat, feeling the blood pooling on the other side of his mouth. "You've only made me more set against helping you."

Alec grabbed his shoulder and rolled him onto his left side. "I can change that." He tore the hospital gown that was covering White's side so that he could see the stitches holding together the stab wound on his side. White's arm, which was tied behind his back to the other one, tried to move over to cover the wound. Alec rolled his eyes at White's pathetic attempt to protect himself. Rather than just shoving it out of his way, he grabbed the elbow and shoved both arms up as far as they would go on their own. White froze, not even taking a breath. Alec studied his face, then asked, "Are you going to change your mind anytime soon?"

"Not a chance."

Alec shrugged without much concern. "Well, that kind of decision is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." With that said, he pushed both of White's arms all the way up. White's jaw clenched as both arms popped out of their sockets. Alec let go and started digging at the stitches. At this point it wasn't just about getting White to cooperate, it was more about getting even for those twenty-four hours that he had been running around with a tiny explosive in the back of his head because of this man. It was also about what he symbolized. Although the entire cult was a danger to them, White was the one that had done the most damage and that most of the transgenics recognized as their enemy. He had killed that man from Luke's division by letting him loose by the cops in front of several news cameras, held that mermaid-type woman captive, and his men had shot Alec in the arm. What wasn't to hate? 

"This is more personal than you're letting on, isn't it?" White gasped, feeling a trickle of sweat make its way down his back. All this tension was wearing him out too quickly, especially since he was recovering from the fight with Max. He couldn't see how Alec could be doing this all for someone else, not with the way he was enjoying it. This was some kind of revenge for him.

"It'll become a little less personal if you just tell Minx to help us." Alec paused in his rampage on White's body to see what he would say.

"Maria is her own woman, I can't guarantee she'll listen to me. More has happened to her than we planned for, she may feel that she has more than repaid her debt to me. In that case, it's not going to matter what I say."

"Are you saying that you'll at least try?"

White could feel the cold blade against his ribs again. Maria probably wouldn't listen to him anyway, so what was the harm? "Fine, but like I said, she still might not do it."

"Let's go find out, shall we?"

********************

Logan had been sitting in silence next to Max, who was now sleeping peacefully. Dana had checked her out and seemed pleased with her progress. It appeared that Max didn't really have anything in her way on the road to recovery. He was just happy that this particular problem was over with.

"I don't care how many people it takes, but you get him out of here! I'll deal with Alec myself."

Logan stood up and let go of Max's hand for the first time in several hours so that he could walk to the door and look out. Mole was striding angrily down the hall, snapping into his walkie-talkie as he went. Unsure of what kind of reaction he'd get, Logan stepped out to catch Mole's attention. "What's going on with Alec?"

"The dumbass dragged Ames White here from the hospital. They were just spotted heading down to the basement where we're holding that familiar spy. I don't know what he thinks he's doing, the last thing we need is two familiars together here. It's the worst move I've ever seen him make."

He could see why Mole was angry. Why would Alec bring White here? That was the last thing any of them needed. Then again, he must have had some good reason for doing it. If he had been going to kill White, he would have just done it at the hospital, so he must have needed White for something. For some reason, his gut was telling him that he needed to go find out what it was. _I can't leave Max, not when she's going to be alright. _His instinct wouldn't listen to him, he still felt the insane urge to go see what was happening. After all, Max was well taken care of right now, and she had worn herself out so much during their conversation that she might not even wake up while he was gone. _I can't believe I'm doing this._ He sighed and followed Mole down the hallway to the stairs.

It wasn't a long walk to Alec's building, but Logan had such a strange feeling about what was going on. For some reason, he felt like whatever was about to happen would be wonderful, but he didn't see how that could be if it involved Minx and White. It didn't matter now though, his legs were almost moving without his consent. When they entered the building, he stepped around Mole and headed down the stairs as fast as he could. A couple X6s glanced up at him as he walked past, but he ignored them and knocked on the basement door. It didn't surprise him when he reached down and found the door to be locked.

"Alec, it's me. Let me in before Mole gets down here." The door opened barely a second later and Logan slipped inside. Alec shoved him out of the way once he was in and swung the door shut and locked it again. "Will you tell me what's going on?"

"Minx might know how to get rid of the virus, and I think she'll tell us what she knows if White orders her to. After all, she's only here because of him." His face was flushed and he was out of breath, Logan guessed that as soon as people had seen who he was with that they had started a chase. It looked like Alec had just barely made it down here, but White was in much worse condition. Logan couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what the familiar looked like. He was tied to the same beam that Minx was, but their backs were to each other so neither one could see the other. 

"Do you think that will work? Are you sure she's not lying about what she knows?"

"She was trying to make a different point when she told me, so I think she's telling the truth. Why don't you go by Minx, and I'll focus on White. I'm hoping it won't take long to get her to share what she knows."

Logan went and kneeled down in front of Minx. She raised an eyebrow as she studied his face. "Where did the glasses come from? I've never seen a transgenic with them before."

"That's because transgenics don't need glasses, but I didn't come here to talk to you about my eyesight. All I want is for you to tell me how we can get rid of the virus in Max."

"Like I told your friend, I'm not saying anything. I have no reason to tell you what I know."

Logan heard Alec kick White roughly, and White muttered, "Go ahead and tell them. I'll be getting what I need out of it, so as soon as you tell them you can consider yourself debt-free."

"But the Conclave won't be pleased."

"What they don't know won't hurt them."

She seemed to think it over, then set her jaw and stared straight into Logan's eyes. _She's going to make a deal,_ he realized. "I want free passage out of here as soon as everything's taken care of. I don't trust him," she jerked her head back to indicate Alec, "but I'll trust you. You seem different than everyone else, which I guess is because you're obviously human, so I'm guessing you have higher morals than them. Just guarantee my safety and my freedom, and I'll help your girlfriend."

Logan looked around the beam at Alec, who was biting down on his lip. He finally looked up and nodded his consent. Logan turned back to Minx and gave her a tight-lipped smile. "You help us out, and you can be sure of having many years of your life still to come."

"Then you had better get me a doctor to talk to so we can get this over with, I want out of this place as soon as possible."

**********************************************************************

Author's Note 2: Please review! 


	12. At Long Last

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long, I was procrastinating majorly. This is one thing I hate about writing stories: finishing them. As far as I'm concerned, no story should ever have to end, but I think people would be a little upset if they came onto ff.net three years in the future (if the DA fandom is still going by then) and find a story with 5,768 chapters. This one's kind of long, but I decided against splitting it into two shorter chapters because I couldn't find a good place to cut it in half without making it seem stupid. So you got the whole damn thing! :)

Disclaimer: DA and its characters aren't my property. I acknowledge and accept that, but I'm still writing my own stories. So there!

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Dust In The Wind

By Be Boring

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Chapter 12: At Long Last

__

Max stared distastefully at the nearly-mirror image of herself. "How can I be sure that you're not just trying to kill me off? After all, you might be killed after I die, but you'll still have guaranteed your people's 'world domination' crock. Do you have any proof that this is going to really work?"

Minx crossed her arms, something she had been doing frequently ever since they had removed her bonds. "There'll be proof after you survive and the virus is gone, but until then you're just going to have to take my word for it."

Everyone in the room, particularly Logan, looked unsure about Minx's plan. He finally shook his head as he studied the woman who might be his and Max's only chance of being together, or the one who would get rid of Max and ruin everything. "I'm with Max on this. As much as I want this virus to be gone, that sounds too risky. Even if you're being honest and that's the only way to get rid of it, it sounds as though it's going to be very dangerous for Max."

She once again shifted her arms so that her hands were clasped together and resting on her knees. "I never said it wouldn't be dangerous, but it's the only way you're going to be free from it. It will take a couple days to make sure the virus has been completely removed from her system, and you could do exactly what you had been doing to revive her from the coma: give her transfusions from other X series to keep her body's defenses up. It may not be the most pleasant experience, but it's necessary. Besides, I don't think there's much of a chance she'll die if you keep providing her with fresh antibodies from new blood. The most discomfort there should be is a fever, and maybe some flu-type symptoms such as headaches, weariness, nausea, and most things that regular humans easily make it through every day."

Alec had remained silent for the entire time he had been in Max's hospital room, but this whole plan really bugged him. "Let me get this straight. This virus just needs to be allowed to run its course, so we're going to take as much blood out of Logan as we can without killing him, divide it into a few equal portions, and put it into Max at regular intervals until the virus has spent itself? That's ludicrous, no matter how many transfusions she gets from other transgenics, I think this is still more likely to kill her than not. It'll be like World War III right in her bloodstream, and while I might not have much medical experience other than the basics, that still doesn't sound like a good idea to me."

Dana nodded her agreement. "It sounds the same way to me. The only thing I can come up with to increase her chance of survival is to get blood donations from transgenics other than X series with high healing capabilities. Variety worked well last time, even if it was just the difference between an X6 and an X5. Maybe having the blood of something completely unlike an X5 would be beneficial. I know of a few different transgenics that could help us here, should I ask them?"

Max stared down at her lap for a few minutes. This wasn't something she could take lightly. As much as she wanted the virus to be gone, did she want to do it if there was only a slight chance she'd live through it? Although Minx acted confident that she'd be fine, Max was more inclined to believe Dana, who was more familiar with how she was set up. Her own medical training was minimal, but she was frantically trying to come up with something that would improve her chances. Only one thing seemed to come to mind, though. "Does it really matter if we do it bit-by-bit or all at once?"

Dana shrugged. "I don't see why not. You'll get sicker if we do it all at once, but your body will be fresh and ready to attack the virus immediately rather than getting worn down after each dosage. What did you have in mind?"

"What about giving me a little bit of the transgenic blood every so often until you think my system is tough enough to handle Logan's blood? I'd get as much rest as possible up until that point, so my body will be in the best condition possible. It may be a hard blow to my body, but I think it would be better than going the other way since I think I'd be all used up by the time you gave me the last transfusion from Logan."

Her eyebrows remained scrunched together for a few minutes, but eventually Dana nodded thoughtfully. "That might actually work better than what we were planning. If we're going to do it this way, however, it'll have to be done in one day. The virus will start multiplying and moving to the new blood if it's left in you too long, so I'd say we should steadily drain out an equal amount of your own blood to counter what's coming in. By the end of the day, the virus shouldn't have been able to duplicate too much so there will be at least a little bit less of it in your system. You might be ill throughout the night, but by the morning we should be able to tell how well it's working. Is this the way you want to go?"

For some reason, Max has an extremely good feeling about this. Her gut instinct was telling her to do it, right along with her heart. Dana sounded much more positive about this, and the slightly disgruntled look on Minx's face was another push towards saying yes. It occurred to her for a moment that she might want to wait a couple days before starting this, but she wasn't exactly known for her patience. If she was going to go through with this, it might as well be sooner rather than later. My chances could be better if I let myself completely recover from the ordeal with the implant. Then again, Dana had told me that I'd pretty much recovered during the coma. Why wait? _"Let's do it."_

~~~

This had all happened earlier that morning, but now butterflies were stirring in Max's stomach as she watched the bags of blood being brought in. Her eyes widened as she saw the amount of it. Dana caught her expression and smiled. "We weren't sure how much of Logan's blood it would require to completely remove the virus, so we started another line giving him transgenic blood through one arm as we withdrew his own from the other. We didn't do that until we absolutely had to, so if there's any transgenic blood in here, it's very minimal."

Max glanced at the clock by her cot, which read 5:57 PM. "When are we going to start this?"

Dana scanned the room, watching a few other medics bring in the needed equipment. "As soon as they get all of this set up. Nervous?"

She smiled peevishly. "A little. Just don't tell anyone else I said that."

"They won't hear it from me." 

********************

White watched as Maria's and his guard walked out to alert the person for the next shift. They really never stayed all that long, it was a two hour shift. The only time the prisoners were left alone for a longer period of time was in the middle of the day and at the end when the last guard left for lunch or supper, and the next one didn't come until after they'd finished theirs. This only left them alone for about ten minutes because of how the schedules were set up, but it was nice not to feel someone's eyes on him, if only for a little while. 

"What are you doing back there?" Maria whispered. "I've heard you fidgeting around every time they leave."

"What business is it to you? You'll probably be getting out of here tomorrow, while I don't think I'll ever leave this basement alive if it's up to them," he snapped.

"You say that like I didn't at least try to get her killed! I gave them a plan that sounded reasonable, but there's almost no way she'd survive. Unfortunately, they managed to turn my idea into something that she'll almost definitely live through."

"So you're telling me that not only will she live, but she'll also get rid of that virus? Are you completely fucking stupid? Why didn't you give them a plan that sounded reasonable, maybe she'd survive through it, but it wouldn't get rid of the virus?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I've been here longer than you, and I've met the doctor that's been treating her. That freak may not be human, but she's smart enough to figure it out if I tried to pull a stunt like that. I didn't have any choice but to give them something that would cure the virus."

"You may be getting out of here soon, but I don't think the Conclave is going to be too happy about all of this. As I think you know, saying that you tried doesn't exactly cut it. They'll just see the fact that it didn't happen."

She didn't say anything, but her ears managed to pick up on something during the silence. He had been moving around behind her the entire time they'd been talking, and she could have sworn she'd heard his breathing change. It was almost like a soft puff of breath, but it sounded triumphant. _If he gets loose, is that good for me or not?_

********************

Logan didn't really know why he was in the Rec Center. Ever since Dana had told him she didn't want him in the infirmary while Max was undergoing the transfusion, he had come here to watch everyone work. It seemed to make his situation so much less important when he saw how hard they had to work to not only stay alive, but stay at least somewhat happy. Tensions were going through the roof around here. If the rest of the country didn't kill them, they just might self-destruct. Nobody here was made for sitting around and waiting, they were all made for action. 

As his feelings became more positive about Max's impending physical trial, he realized that he needed to get back to the rest of his life as well. It would be so much easier without the weight of the virus on his shoulders. It was so hard to remember that he couldn't touch her, especially when he took into account how often they had used to touch. It hadn't seemed like they had touched so much back then, but now that he looked back he realized just how often they had accidentally brushed against each other or sat leaning against each other. All those simple little touches would have killed him if they'd happened in the last year.

Now it was almost a burning need in him to get back to being Eyes Only. It had been his entire life before he'd met Max, and only now that he'd been away from it for a while did he realize how much he'd missed it. The little hack Alec had done for him didn't count, he needed to be doing it himself. There was so much more that he could do now. He could expose the cult so that the main focus of the country wasn't on the transgenics, he could try and get as many people on the side of the transgenics as possible, and he could expose all the companies who appeared to be taking advantage of the country's fear. Some companies that weren't even involved in medicines were selling little more than sugar pills while claiming that they would protect everyone from the "diseases" that the transgenics carried. 

There were even several Eyes Only matters springing to mind that didn't involve anyone in Terminal City. What about the obvious lack of staff at Harbor Lights Hospital? With a few well-placed threats, he could have wealthy corporations donating enough money to actually hire a few more doctors and maybe replace some equipment. When he thought of all he had missed ever since White had shot his apartment to hell, he realized just how much had already gone on in his absence. There was too much to make up for, but he was ready to start on it.

Rubbing his hands together nervously, Logan glanced up at the clock on the wall. _How can it only be 6:35? Time couldn't possibly be moving that slow. Why couldn't it be AM? _He finally just resigned himself to watching Mole clean a large pile of guns, some of which looked as though they could have been over forty years old. Mole didn't look too happy about it, but he didn't have much choice. Terminal City's armory was rather empty.

Mole finally looked up with an exasperated expression on his face. "I know I'm not pretty, so is there some reason you find me so fascinating?"

Logan chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry about that, I'm just trying to keep my mind off everything."

The transgenic went back to cleaning his gun, but it was obvious he hadn't ended the conversation just yet. "It's kind of hard to keep your mind off everything, it never works." There was a long period of silence, but Mole finally added, "I wouldn't worry about it, Max is a pretty tough little shit. She can be idealistic at times, but for the most part I think she might be the scariest thing to have walked out of Manticore. She'll be fine."

Logan wasn't quite sure how to respond, but he didn't have to. A loud explosion of static burst from Mole's walkie-talkie, making them both jump. Mole pulled the walkie-talkie off of his belt and pressed down on the side button. "This is Mole, what's going on?"

A rather frightened voice came from the other end. "One of the prisoners escaped, sir. There's seven dead residents in the building, two more on the street just outside, and the other prisoner has been killed."

"Do you have any idea how long ago this occurred? ..... Soldier, answer me! ..... Is anyone there?" Mole frowned and reattached the walkie-talkie to his belt. "Minx might still be in the building."

"Minx? You think she's the one who escaped?"

Mole's face was incredulous. "Who else? Have you seen the condition White is in? There's no way he's escaped and managed to kill seven perfectly healthy transgenics.

"I wouldn't put it past him. I've seen him get up and walk away right after getting hit by a truck, without even taking a second to heal. He's had around twenty-four hours to recover somewhat from Alec's 'discussion' with him, he might be ready to get out. Besides, Minx has no motive to try and escape, she'll be set free tomorrow if all goes well. Why would she escape and make everyone here angry by killing a few people?"

"I don't know why she'd bother to escape, but I don't think the killings were just because she felt like it. They were probably just people who got in the way and she didn't want them to raise the alarm."

Logan didn't say anything as Mole started making calls to other guards situated around the city. Mole could think what he liked, but his gut was telling him that it was White who was out. _I'm sure he knows the layout of this place, even if it's just from maps and pictures. I don't think he's going to leave just yet, not in the shape he's in. My bet is he'll head to the infirmary for Max. _There was no doubt that he knew what Minx had done to ensure that Max's virus would be cured, so maybe he was going to try and get rid of her. She was more vulnerable right now, especially since the transfusion had to have started by now and she'd be starting to get sick. She wouldn't be able to defend herself, and the medics had spent most of their lives training in medicine, not fighting. 

As Mole finally left to head over to the scene, Logan strayed behind. Should he go to see which one was really loose, or should he head straight to the infirmary? _God, why am I even debating this? The worst that can happen if I go to the infirmary and White's not there is that Dana will be angry at me for not respecting her wishes._ He hesitated for a moment, then walked back to where Mole had been cleaning the guns and picked up a handgun. It had to have been one of the newest models on the table, whoever had found it had probably received a rare smile from Mole. He grabbed a clip off the table parallel to the cleaning area, which contained all of the ammo that everyone had managed to scrape up. _He may have a physical advantage over me, but he's not invincible. If I have to do something drastic, I'll do it._

********************

White could hardly take the pain that was tearing through him, but he forcefully ignored it. He could already see what was going to happen if he stayed: they'd perhaps tell him a tidbit about his son, then kill him. What good would that do him? He needed to be able to actually get some closure, whether he heard good news or bad about Ray. The only thing that he could do was talk to 452 while she was weak. If he could get in safely, it wouldn't be hard to kill her, but perhaps she would tell him what she knew before she died in exchange for him leaving the transgenics alone. For once, he was actually prepared to make a deal like that. He'd have what he needed to find Ray, and their people would be guaranteed victory in the end without her there to stop them. What were the other transgenics to him? He still harbored a deep loathing for them, but they weren't important without 452 around. 

The infirmary was very quiet when he stepped in. Apparently the staff here had later mealtimes than everyone else. He hadn't expected to find no resistance, but this lack of obstacles was almost heart lifting. It almost made him forget about the burning in his blood and the occasional dizziness. He just might pull this off.

Stumbling around the building was really draining his energy, but he kept forcing himself onward. His only coherent thought was of finding 452, the rest was all a jumble of nonsense. His son was the only thing left for him, and he wasn't about to give up just because of a hard week. Actually, the hardest thing for him right now was keeping his breath silent. It was hard only breathing with one lung, Harbor Lights hadn't been able to start trying to fix the other one before he was taken out. 

__

I wish my father could see what his own creations were doing with his family. They've stolen his grandson and are trying to kill his eldest son. Are you happy, Father? Do you like tearing apart your family? You've always been good at it, ruining everything for us has been your favorite pastime. I wish I had killed you back when you started telling us stories about her_. I knew you were doing something wrong, treacherous, blasphemous. C.J. was too young to know that what you were telling us was not good, but I knew. You even abandoned us, your children, for something you'd made in a test tube. Why was _she_ so special? What made her more important than your family? She's done nothing but destroy us from the moment you created her. She took you away from us, made our family the laughingstocks of our people, and now is trying to get rid of the next generation of our family. My son was strong, I'm sure he lived through the initiation. If he died, it was at her hands. _

Finally, White sank against the wall; the exhaustion had become too much for him. He reached out and opened the nearest door, which turned out to be covering an empty patient's room. He practically crawled in, fighting back the waves of blackness that were threatening to take him over. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was too tired to go after 452 right now. Besides, he reasoned that she would probably be sicker later on that night. It was still fairly early right now, only quarter after seven. It might be wiser to wait until he was sure she couldn't fight back before he started anything. His body desperately needed some sleep, and he knew he could no longer deny it that. 452 could wait.

********************

Dana's arms were crossed as she watched Logan pass by her room for at least the tenth time that night. It was impossible to get any work done with him prowling the corridors, opening doors at random. Mole had stopped by earlier to give everyone the news that it was indeed White who had escaped, but they couldn't find him anywhere in the city and the guards in the sewers had sworn that they hadn't seen anyone pass by. Now Logan hadn't left the infirmary, and he was becoming rather annoying.

She finally popped her head out of her doorway and snapped, "If you're so worried, I'll let you go sit in Max's room so you can be sure she's not alone. Just stop all the damned pacing!"

Logan flushed slightly, he'd never seen Dana this angry, and the fact that it was aimed at him was rather daunting. Of course, he had to respect the fact that his constant movement could be disturbing the sensitive hearing of any patients. He nodded gratefully for her offer and immediately set out for Max's room. It would be nice to sit down anyways, he'd been walking around this infirmary for nearly two hours now. He almost wished he had put on the exoskeleton this morning, but with how worried he had been about Max lately, the exoskeleton was the last thing on his mind. Now that he had been walking around in this slightly toxic atmosphere for so long, his legs were starting to get a little shaky. He at least felt comforted by the cool weight of the gun in his hand.

Max was asleep when he walked in, but sweat had lathered her body. It was showing through the sheet that was covering her, as well as plastering her hair to her head. Her breathing was harsh and raspy, not to mention faster than usual, but he supposed that was to be expected. At this point he was usually much worse off than this, so he decided to take her condition as a positive sign. Staring down at her peaceful face, despite how sweaty it was, his resolution to protect her only strengthened. If White dared to harm her...

He jumped and tightened his grip on the gun as he heard the door behind him open, but let all the breath out of his lungs when he saw that it was just Alec. "How is she so far?"

"Not bad, especially compared to how I would be doing right now. If I remember correctly, I've been worse than this within fifteen minutes. What are you doing here?"

"Mole sent a couple more guards over here to keep an eye on Max, and he sent me up to guard her room. White won't be looking forward to coming across me again. Besides, Mole said you were over here, and I figured you'd be in her room so I came in to have someone to talk to. It's damn boring sitting out there with nothing to do, and before you say that I'd be able to do my job better out there, I'm pretty sure that with the shape White's in I'll be able to hear him long before he gets near this door."

Logan nodded, he could see the sense in that. Besides, he couldn't help but admit that he was glad for the company. He looked back down at Max, watching every breath, every flicker of an eyelash. How was she really coping with this? Seeing as how she was asleep, was she really aware that she was sick? Would she wake up in the morning as healthy as could be, and wonder why she hadn't gotten sick? He truly hoped so, this whole experience would be much easier that way. He simply hated the thought of her suffering.

Alec studied the other man's face, noting the concern. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm just wondering what's going on in her head. That's actually something that I've never been able to figure out. I mean, I used to know what she was thinking, at least on some level, but it's become so much harder now. She closed herself off from me about the time that, well, you know."

"That she pretended to be with me? She just thought she was protecting you, and it's not like it's changed much of anything. You're still next to her, and she obviously still loves you because she's getting rid of the virus. I don't think it's because she wants to save the world most of all."

"I know she still loves me, she said so herself. Whether or not she'll ever feel comfortable enough to open up around me again is a whole other story."

The voices sounded so far off, but Max could vaguely hear the conversation. However, she was more preoccupied by the battle going on in her body. She had never been this aware of what was happening in her body before, but it was almost like she could hear some sort of commentary shouting out in her head. Every now and then it was like something in her head would scream out, "We're winning!" and other times she could sense that the virus had taken the upper hand. She hadn't been able to really sleep during this time, just doze lightly, but it also seemed difficult at the moment to wake up. She could hear Logan's voice, but she couldn't answer him. It was like he was standing at the beginning of a runway, and she was on a plane heading in the opposite direction. If she didn't work harder to reach him, the plane would take off and she'd never get back.

********************

White couldn't believe the time when he woke up. How could it be an hour after midnight? Still, he had to admit that he felt refreshed. Everything still hurt, but he had enough energy to walk without feeling like he was about to collapse after five steps. He noticed that there was a guard at the end of the hall when he stepped out, but it appeared that he was falling asleep. Every now and then he could hear the static of a walkie-talkie in the distance, probably just to report that they hadn't found him yet. _Fools. I'm hardly able to walk and they still can't catch me. How often is it that I can take a nap when I'm running from enemies?_

He waited until the guard's head had dropped down onto his chest and he slowly slumped to the ground before he stepped out of the room he'd been hiding in. Something told him that he hadn't been far from 452's room when he'd fallen asleep, and as usual his instinct turned out to be right. He had only crept down the hall past five rooms before he heard whispering from behind a door. He recognized 494's voice immediately and for possibly the first time in his life he felt a flicker of fear at the memory of what had happened to him. Nobody had ever done something like that to him, and it wasn't something he was going to forget soon. 

__

Stop being stupid, he doesn't even know I'm out here yet, and if he does come out here, I'll have something waiting for him. His fingers closed down on the scalpel he had taken from the room he'd been hiding in. He didn't need to be in top form to use this, he just needed the right opportunity. The problem was that he wasn't going to get that opportunity with the one he wanted to.

Logan was starting to feel tired as he tried to keep talking with Alec. No matter how hard he tried, his eyelids kept wanting to close. _I could sleep if I really wanted to, it's not like I'm Max's only protection. _The thing was that he really didn't want to sleep. Even if there were transgenics here to watch over Max, he felt a certain responsibility to help protect her. For some reason, he felt like it was going to be up to him. _That's ridiculous, the others will take the first shot at whoever tries to hurt Max, and I don't think a second shot will be needed._

"Hey, what's happening to Max?" Alec asked suddenly with alarm. Logan turned to see that she was starting to shake on the bed, not as though she was cold, but like she was having a seizure. "Maybe you should go get Dana." At the look of protest in Logan's eyes, Alec replied, "She's not cured of the virus yet, if anything happens you won't be able to help her." As Max's seizures started to grow in intensity, Logan leapt to his feet and headed for the door. He hadn't even reached it before he heard a crash. One of Max's arms had knocked her food tray from earlier to the ground. Alec rushed over and held her arms at her sides to keep her from hitting any of the equipment nearby, much of which had sharp attachments that were within her reach. 

White could hear the sudden movement inside, then footsteps for the door. _Who's coming out? I hope it's 494._ His grip tightened on the scalpel at the mere thought of sticking it straight down 494's throat. As the door opened, a rush of disappointment flooded through him. It was only the other man, the one he had shot with a dart when he'd taken 452 out of Terminal City. He tested putting his weight heavily down on both feet. Despite his broken ankle, made worse by his time with 494, he could still put enough pressure on them to run. 

Logan's back was to him as he came out, but his shout brought Dana out of her office to face them. Her eyes only managed to widen slightly at the sight before her, but White had thrown his scalpel before she could say a word. It lodged itself perfectly into her jugular. Logan spun around and froze, he and White only staring at each other for several moments. White was the first to move, but it was towards him rather than away. Everything seemed to explode in front of Logan's eyes as White's fist made contact with his head.

__

He's not going to be stunned for long, and this is going to draw too much attention from the guards. Even though it wasn't as fast as usual, White was running for the end of the hall, where the guard was starting to wake up. White kicked him as he went past, not killing him like he had intended to, but knocking him out. He tore to the left and headed for the stairs. 

Logan had to shake his head viciously to get any vision back, the colors were swarming in front of him so much that he could hardly tell the ceiling from the floor. _Why did I let him get a hit on me like that? Why didn't I just pull out the gun?_ Well, it was too late for that now. From the sounds of Max's rattling cot, Alec wouldn't be able to come help him anytime soon. Max still needed to be held down, and Logan still couldn't be the one to do it. Making up his mind, he took off down the hall after White. His adrenaline burst gave him more speed than he'd ever had, it felt like he had taken only two strides before he'd reached the end of the hall. As he turned the corner, he could see the door to the stairs swinging on its hinges ahead. He lunged through it and started taking the stairs down three at a time, noting that he was lucky he hadn't broken his neck yet. 

White could hear him coming as he headed into the main floor, and something hit him by surprise as he was running. _He's not a transgenic, he's an ordinary. He's running too heavily to be transgenic, and I'm sure none of these freaks need glasses._ It was strange, he had thought the glasses had been a disguise back when he'd been helping Wendy find Ray, but apparently not. Why had he assumed that this man was one of the freaks? Was it because he was always around 452? _It doesn't matter. The fact is that he's human, and he's weak. I can finish him off easily._ Rather than continuing on through the floor to the front door, he stayed right next to the entranceway of the stairs. He would kill that man the second he came through.

As he made it down to the main floor, Logan was aware that something was off. He should have still been able to hear White running, yet everything was quiet. _He's waiting for me,_ he realized. He pulled the gun out of his pocket and held it ready in his hand. This was all going to go very fast, he just hoped he'd be able to keep up. 

He was right, everything did go in quick succession. The second he stepped through the door, he felt one punch break at least two of his ribs. It was the only attack White managed to make on him though. He raised the gun and fired before another move could be made, and then everything seemed to go dead silent. White slowly looked down at his new wound, which was just barely to the left side of his chest. Logan felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably as White stumbled backward, holding his hand firmly over the blood flow. 

__

I have to finish it, I can't leave him like that, Logan thought in a panic. He remembered the people who had died at Cape Haven. At least then things had gone fast and they hadn't suffered, but he hadn't killed White with the first shot. How could he pull the trigger again? White slumped against the wall, no longer trying to restrict the escape of his blood. It was futile anyways, he could already tell that the hit couldn't have been more dead on. Still, he had to know, he had to find out.

"My son...?" he mumbled dully, getting cut off by a cough that brought blood into the back of his mouth.

Logan took a deep, shaky breath, then raised the gun again and walked forward. White looked up and their eyes connected for only a moment. "He's alive," Logan whispered, and pulled the trigger just as he saw the realization of what he had said dawn in the other man's eyes. 

********************

Everything was quiet when Josie, another one of the medics in the infirmary, entered the room. Logan was sitting quietly next to Max's bed, watching her sleep again with the morning sun filtering through the window and onto her face. Alec had gone to get them both something to eat. Max's seizures had calmed themselves in the night, giving them time to go find another medic to treat her. They had tried to save Dana, but she had been dead by the time Logan returned from downstairs. Logan had still been in shock when he'd come up, so he had been grateful that nobody asked what had happened. All that mattered was that White was out of the way.

"Is it good news? Is the virus gone?" he asked hopefully. He didn't think he could bear for the entire night to have been a waste.

Josie smiled, even though he knew she was hurting from Dana's death. She was only an X6, but she had been close to Dana, who had been teaching her how to be a doctor. At this point she was probably the most qualified person to treat Max since she was the only one familiar with the case. "Yes, it seems that the virus has been used up. She'll be worn out for a while, but I think she'll be more happy than anything else."

Logan felt like he was in shock when Josie left. _It's gone? It's gone. It's gone!_ Every time he repeated it to himself, he became more excited. He looked down at his gloved hand and almost laughed as he pulled off the glove and reached out to really take her hand. God, he could actually feel her skin again! The heat of her hand was real, not something that took a couple minutes to come through a glove. He squeezed her hand gently, reveling in the fact that they didn't have to be separated again.

Max could distantly feel his hand, but something about it shocked her right out of her sleep. Her eyes didn't open as suddenly as they probably would have if she had been less tired, but they still opened pretty quickly nevertheless. She could see Logan's face, which was slightly surprised but still completely overjoyed. "Logan? Something's different. What is it?" Everything was so foggy that she hardly even realized where she was. Rather than answer her directly, he just squeezed her hand again. Instinctively, she glanced down, then looked straight back up at him with a delighted flush creeping into her face.

"Is it gone? Did it work? God, what am I saying, of course it worked! You're holding my hand! What time is it?"

Logan laughed softly. "About 7:30. How do you feel?"

She sighed and settled herself more comfortably down into her cot, gripping his hand almost too tightly just to make sure it was really there. "A little woozy, but I'll be fine." She studied his face carefully, sure that she could see something wrong in the back of his eyes. "What's wrong? I would have thought you'd be through the roof."

He wasn't quite making eye contact as he ran his fingers back through his hair. "It's nothing, I couldn't be better." Her look told him straight out that she didn't believe him. "Well, I guess in a way it's good news, I just wish I hadn't been the one to handle it. White tried to come after you again last night, and everything was so messed up that I was the one who had to deal with him." He couldn't seem to push himself to continue. Although it wasn't his first time doing it, how could he just say that he killed someone, even a crazed cult member that was out to kill Max, and not feel guilty about it? 

Max could see it in his face, he didn't have to put it into words. "I know it's hard whenever you have to end a life, but it's not really your fault. It was either you or him, and personally, I'm pretty happy with the fact that you're the one who came out of it alive. Besides, that's a huge weight off the shoulders of everyone here. They'll probably have a Logan Day sometime in the future."

He finally cracked a smile at that. "At least you don't have to worry about him anymore. You know, I really don't get how you deal with all of it. The enemies, the haters, the virus; how do you do it?"

"It's old hat by now. You know, it really reminds me of this old song that Kendra had in her CD collection. It was called "Dust In The Wind." The whole song was about how we all really only play a small role in everything that's happened in this world, and it's basically saying that compared to everything, we ourselves are only dust in the wind. That's how I feel about all these problems. They just keep coming, and none of them is really any more important than another. As far as my life goes, this whole incident was just dust in the wind. The problems have always been there, and they're going to keep coming, so I just have to go with it."

Logan quietly gazed down at her face, feeling like something had just clicked into place about her. How she kept everything in perspective, how she dealt with things that most people would consider a tragedy. He couldn't honestly say that he knew everything about her, but he had never felt so close to her as he did right at this moment. They were silent for a minute, then as though they were one person, they leaned towards each other for a kiss that that made the entire past year fade into distant memory.

__

I close my eyes, only for a moment and the moment's gone

All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity

Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind

Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do, crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away, all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

******************************************************************************

Author's Note 2: I don't think I've ever written a sappier ending :P, but I guess someone in my stories has to be happy. It's all over folks! Please review! By the way, the song is "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.


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